Robots ... 'smells' may soon replace future dogs

Scientists at the Duke of North Carolina School of Medicine said they are working on developing a type of robot that integrates special 'nasal' devices like professional dogs to detect drugs, explosives and save people.

In fact, trained dogs are expensive to detect the presence of certain chemicals and drugs.

Scientists at Duke Medical School have used genetic resources from the mouse nose to study and develop an artificial olfactory organ capable of sensing smells like mice. This is a new direction that will one day replace dogs.

Professional dogs in the near future will be replaced by robots capable of 'sniffing' super.

"The idea of ​​an artificial nose has been around for a long time. Instead of using real-life entities, we can develop a device that has similar capabilities to animals. Not yet available. Who can do that, but our research is promising , 'said Hiroaki Matsunami, a professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at Duke University.

To carry out the study, the scientists created an environment with special fluids containing molecules that could glow from reactions.

The first step of the study was to identify the best odor receptors in response to target smells such as cocaine or marijuana.

The scientists then copied about 80% of the odor receptors from mice and mixed them with 7 chemicals that wanted to be tested in a liquid environment to measure the level of luminescence when reacted and picked out. The best odor receptor.

Researchers are currently expanding the study to be able to apply how the nose detects strange signals in a normal environment that is not liquid.

The researchers hope to refine the device so that odor receptors can detect many different smells.

'We have a control panel that can track receptors that react with different odors, including similar substances in chemical structures or related substances used in practice,' said the teacher. Professor Matsunami revealed.