19:00 24 January 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Mason Inman
Moths are renowned for their ability to pick up a faint whiff of pheromones from faraway mates. Robots may soon match this feat with the help of a new mathematical method developed to help guide them toward a scent. In tests, the algorithm made virtual scent-hunter bots move just like moths do, snaking and spiralling toward their goal.
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Massimo Vergassola at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, and colleagues created an algorithm that tells a robot how to move in order to gather as much olfactory information as possible. This allows it to home in on even the faintest of scents.
See the full article.
Journal reference: Nature (vol 445, p 406)
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