Name: insect-controlled robot: a mobile robot platform to evaluate the odor-tracking capability of an insect
Uploaded: 2016-12-19T15:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Insect-controlled Robot: A Mobile Robot Platform to Evaluate the Odor-tracking Capability of an Insect at JoVE.com

We thank Shigeru Matsuyama for providing purified bombykol. This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI (grant numbers 22700197 and 24650090) and the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP).

1. Experimental Animal <ol><li> Forbered en plastboks for å holde puppe av mannlige Silkmoths (B. mori) inntil deres eklosjonshormon. Benyttet papirhåndklær i bunnen og stykker av papp rundt den indre vegg av boksen (figur 1A). Merk: biter av papp er nødvendig for den voksne møll å holde mens utvide sine vinger under eklosjonshormon (figur 1A). </li><li> Sett mannlig silkmoth (Bombyx mor i) puppe i boksen og holde dem i en inkubator innt...

De viktigste punktene for en vellykket kontroll av roboten ved en silkmoth gav møll gå jevnt på air-støttet ball og stabilt måle ball rotasjon. Derfor tethering den silkmoth og montere den på ballen i riktig posisjon er de kritiske trinn i denne protokollen. Upassende adhesjon av møll til feste eller uhensiktsmessig plassering av møll på ballen vil føre unaturlig press på den, som perturbs sin normale gang oppførsel og / eller fører til en svikt i optisk sensor for å måle ballen rotasjon. Mattes isopor ba...

Autonomous robots capable of finding an odor source can be important for the safety and security of society. They can be used for the detection of disaster victims, of drugs or explosive materials at an airport, and of hazardous material spills or leaks in the environment. At present, we rely entirely on well-trained animals (e.g., dogs) for these tasks, and robotic odor source localization has been strongly expected to relieve the workload of these animals. Finding an odor source is a challenging task for robots because odorants are distributed intermittently in an atmosphere1; therefore, continuous sampling of the odor concentration gradient is not always possible. Thus, a search strategy using intermittent odor cues is necessary for the achievement of robotic odor source localization2-4.
Odor source localization is essential for organism survival and includes tasks such as finding food, mating partners, and sites for oviposition. To overcome the difficulty in tracking patchy distributed odorants, organisms have evolved various behavioral strategies consisting of two fundamental behaviors: moving upstream during odor reception and cross-stream during cessation of odor reception5,6. These reactive strategies have been well-documented in insects and further combined with other modalities, such as wind direction and vision5-8. The insect behavioral models have also been useful examples for robotics3,9-11, in which behavioral algorithms or neural circuit models are implemented into mobile robots for the evaluation of odor source localization abilities10,12-15. From biomimetic perspectives, this "bottom-up" approach is certainly a fundamental way to develop biomimetic robots. However, the bottom-up approach is not a shortcut to obtaining a useful search strategy, because biological analyses are still ongoing, and the modeling of the sensory-motor systems behind insect behaviors has not been completed. Therefore, it is still unknown how such a biological system actually works as a controller of a robotic platform.
In this article, we demonstrate the protocol of a straightforward "top-down" approach to develop an odor-tracking mobile robot controlled by a biological system16,17. The robot is controlled by a real insect and can be regarded as a prototype of future insect-mimetic robots. In the robot's cockpit, a tethered adult male silkmoth (Bombyx mori) walked on an air-supported ball in response to the female sex pheromone, which was delivered to each antenna through air suction tubes. The ball rotations caused by the walking of the onboard moth were measured by an optical sensor and were translated into the movement of the two-wheeled robot. The advantage of this "hybrid" approach is that experimenters can investigate how the insect sensory-motor system works on the robotic platform where a pilot insect is in a closed loop between the robot and a real odor circumstance. The manipulation of the robotic hardware alters the closed loop; therefore, the insect-controlled robot is a useful platform for both engineers and biologists. For engineering, the robot represents the first steps of applying a biological model to meet the requirements for robotic tasks. For biology, the robot is an experimental platform for studying sensory-motor control under a closed loop.

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		<col />
		<col />
		<col />
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		<tr height="43">
			<td height="43" style="height:43px;width:267px;">Male adult silkmoth 
			&#160;(Bombyx mori)</td>
			<td style="width:159px;"></td>
			<td style="width:171px;"></td>
			<td style="width:365px;">Rear from eggs, or purchase as pupae.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:267px;">Incubator</td>
			<td style="width:159px;">Panasonic</td>
			<td style="width:171px;">MIR-254</td>
			<td style="width:365px;">Store pupae or adult silkmoths at a constant temperature, 238 L.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:267px;">Plastic box</td>
			<td style="width:159px;">Sunplatec</td>
			<td style="width:171px;">O-3</td>
			<td style="width:365px;">Store pupae or adult silkmoths, 299 &#215; 224 &#215; 62 mm L &#215; W &#215; H.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="63">
			<td height="63" style="height:63px;width:267px;">Copper wire</td>
			<td style="width:159px;"></td>
			<td style="width:171px;"></td>
			<td style="width:365px;">2-mm diameter for the attachment. Any rigid bar can be used as an alternative for making the attachment to tether a silkmoth.&#160;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:267px;">Plastic sheet</td>
			<td style="width:159px;">Kokuyo</td>
			<td style="width:171px;">VF-1420N</td>
			<td style="width:365px;">Sold as overhead projector film with thickness of 0.1 mm. Use at the tip of the attachment.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:267px;">Forceps</td>
			<td style="width:159px;">As one</td>
			<td style="width:171px;">5SA</td>
			<td style="width:365px;">Remove scales on the thorax.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:267px;">Adhesive</td>
			<td style="width:159px;">Konishi</td>
			<td style="width:171px;">G17</td>
			<td style="width:365px;">Bond a silkmoth to the attachment.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="93">
			<td height="93" style="height:93px;width:267px;">Insect-controlled robot</td>
			<td style="width:159px;">Custom</td>
			<td style="width:171px;"></td>
			<td style="width:365px;">Bearing an air-supported treadmill, an optical sensor, custom-built AVR-based microcontroller boards, and two DC brushless motors. It is powered by 8 &#215; AA and 3 &#215; 006P batteries.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="28">
			<td height="28" style="height:28px;width:267px;">Microcontroller</td>
			<td style="width:159px;">Atmel</td>
			<td style="width:171px;">ATMEGA8</td>
			<td style="width:365px;">A component of the insect-controlled robot.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:267px;">DC blower</td>
			<td style="width:159px;">Nidec</td>
			<td style="width:171px;">A34342-55</td>
			<td style="width:365px;">A component of the insect-controlled robot for floating a ball in an air-supported treadmill.&#160;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="40">
			<td height="40" style="height:40px;width:267px;">DC fan</td>
			<td style="width:159px;">Minebea</td>
			<td style="width:171px;">1606KL-04W-B50</td>
			<td style="width:365px;">A component of the insect-controlled robot for suctioning air containing an odor.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="65">
			<td height="65" style="height:65px;width:267px;">Optical mouse sensor</td>
			<td style="width:159px;">Agilent technologies</td>
			<td style="width:171px;">HDNS-2000</td>
			<td style="width:365px;">A component of the insect-controlled robot, obtained from an optical mouse (M-GUWSRSV, Elecom, Japan).</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:267px;">Brushless motor</td>
			<td style="width:159px;">Maxon</td>
			<td style="width:171px;">EC-45</td>
			<td style="width:365px;">A component of the insect-controlled robot for driving a wheel.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:267px;">White polystyrene ball</td>
			<td style="width:159px;"></td>
			<td style="width:171px;"></td>
			<td style="width:365px;">A component of the insect-controlled robot. Diameter 50 mm, mass approximately 2 g.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:267px;">Bombykol: 
			&#160;(E,Z)-10,12-hexadecadien-1-ol</td>
			<td style="width:159px;">Shin-Etsu chemical</td>
			<td style="width:171px;"></td>
			<td style="width:365px;">Custom synthesis.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:267px;">n-hexane</td>
			<td style="width:159px;">Wako</td>
			<td style="width:171px;">085-00416</td>
			<td style="width:365px;">Solvent for bombykol.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:267px;">Wind tunnel</td>
			<td style="width:159px;">Custom</td>
			<td style="width:171px;"></td>
			<td style="width:365px;">Pulling-air type, sized 1800 &#215; 900 &#215; 300 mm L &#215; W &#215; H.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="105">
			<td height="105" style="height:105px;width:267px;">BioSignal program</td>
			<td style="width:159px;">Custom</td>
			<td style="width:171px;"></td>
			<td style="width:365px;">A program to establish serial communication between the insect-controlled robot and a PC via Bluetooth. Used for sending commands to start/stop the robot or configuring its motor properties.&#160;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:267px;">Camcorder</td>
			<td style="width:159px;">Sony</td>
			<td style="width:171px;">HDR-XR520V</td>
			<td style="width:365px;">Capture robot movements.</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

insect-controlled robot: a mobile robot platform to evaluate the odor-tracking capability of an insect

Robotic odor source localization has been a challenging area and one to which biological knowledge has been expected to contribute, as finding odor sources is an essential task for organism survival. Insects are well-studied organisms with regard to odor tracking, and their behavioral strategies have been applied to mobile robots for evaluation. This "bottom-up" approach is a fundamental way to develop biomimetic robots; however, the biological analyses and the modeling of behavioral mechanisms are still ongoing. Therefore, it is still unknown how such a biological system actually works as the controller of a robotic platform. To answer this question, we have developed an insect-controlled robot in which a male adult silkmoth (Bombyx mori) drives a robot car in response to odor stimuli; this can be regarded as a prototype of a future insect-mimetic robot. In the cockpit of the robot, a tethered silkmoth walked on an air-supported ball and an optical sensor measured the ball rotations. These rotations were translated into the movement of the two-wheeled robot. The advantage of this "hybrid" approach is that experimenters can manipulate any parameter of the robot, which enables the evaluation of the odor-tracking capability of insects and provides useful suggestions for robotic odor-tracking. Furthermore, these manipulations are non-invasive ways to alter the sensory-motor relationship of a pilot insect and will be a useful technique for understanding adaptive behaviors.

Vi presenterer her de grunnleggende egenskapene til insekt-kontrollerte robot som kreves for en vellykket lokalisering av en lukt kilde. Sammenligningen mellom roboten og Silkmoths, effektiviteten av de luktavgivelsessystemet, og betydningen av korrekt bilateral olfaktorisk og visuelle innganger er undersøkt. Sammenligningen av lukt-sporing atferd mellom fritt-walking møll og insekt-styrt robot er vist i figur 10A</s...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Insect-controlled Robot: A Mobile Robot Platform to Evaluate the Odor-tracking Capability of an Insect at JoVE.com

Insect-controlled Robot: A Mobile Robot Platform to Evaluate the Odor-tracking Capability of an Insect

Muligheten for å lokalisere en kilde lukt er nødvendig for insekt overlevelse og forventes å være anvendelig til kunstig lukt-sporing. Insektet styrt robot er drevet av en faktisk silkmoth og gjør oss i stand til å vurdere lukt-sporing evne av insekter gjennom en robot plattform.

Insekt-styrt robot: Et mobilt Robot Platform til Vurdere Lukt-sporing Capability av et insekt

Robotic odor source localization has been a challenging area and one to which biological knowledge has been expected to contribute, as finding odor ...

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