Study of a small mobile robot that uses living insect antennae as pheromone sensors

Abstract

We have developed a pheromone-tracing robot, PheGMot-III, which is endowed with the silkworm moth's antennae as pheromone sensors. In order to maximize the use of the antennae, the robot's size was scaled down to the insect's size and workspace. By comparing the robot's behavior to that of the silkworm moth, we were able to improve the behavior release models implemented in PheGMot-III. We confirm the performance of the pheromone sensor and discuss some behavior release models.