Mimicking Biological Design and Computing Principles in Artificial Olfaction

Baranidharan Raman, Mark Stopfer, Steve Semancik
2011 ACS Chemical Neuroscience  
T he olfactory system allows an organism to detect and interpret chemical cues present in its environment. A range of day-to-day functions, including appetite stimulation, food foraging and evaluation, mate recognition, navigation, detection of threats, and even early diagnosis of diseases depend on efficient processing of olfactory cues. 1 To perform these essential but complex olfactory tasks, most mammalian and insect species have evolved strikingly similar chemosensory systems. This
more » ... that the iterative process of evolution converged to a common set of design and computing rules for the purpose of odor recognition. 2 Artificial systems for noninvasive chemical sensing, popularly referred to as "electronic nose technology" or "e-nose" for short have emerged recently. 3 Like their biological inspiration, electronic noses typically combine an array of sensitive detectors capable of distinguishing different chemicals with a pattern recognition module to detect and identify odors. 4À7 Here, we first identify and discuss biological design and computing principles that we believe are particularly relevant for the purpose of artificial olfaction. Second, we review recent progress in engineering approaches inspired by biological principles. ABSTRACT: Biology has inspired solutions to many engineering problems, including those encountered in chemical sensing. Modern approaches to chemical sensing have been based on the biological principle of combining cross-selective chemical sensors with a pattern recognition engine to identify odors. Here, we review some recent advances made in mimicking biological design and computing principles to develop an electronic nose. The resulting technology will have important applications in fundamental biological research, as well as in industrial, security, and medical domains.
doi:10.1021/cn200027r pmid:22081790 pmcid:PMC3212736 fatcat:ir7rrhmp6ff4jhfeuy5aklzk5u