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Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

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This Robot Can Smell Like a Moth Even When Half Its Sensors Are Broken!

Imagine a robot that can track odors with the same accuracy whether it has two sensors or just one. This might sound like science fiction, but a team of researchers in Japan has made it a reality. Inspired by the humble silkworm moth (Bombyx mori), scientists have developed a bio-inspired robotic system that can locate odor sources both indoors and outdoors, even if one of its sensors stops working. This innovation could revolutionize fields ranging from disaster response to environmental monitoring.

The Inspiration: Silkworm Moths and Resilient Behavior

Silkworm moths, despite having tiny brains and simple nervous systems, are masters at odor-guided navigation. Male silkworm moths, in particular, rely on sex pheromones released by females to locate potential mates. They achieve this using a pair of antennae, one on each side of their head, to detect faint chemical signals carried by the wind.

What’s remarkable is that even if a silkworm moth loses one antenna, it can still reach its target. The insect compensates by adjusting its behavior using the olfactory information from the remaining antenna, dynamically considering both the direction of odor detection and its own heading. This adaptability allows it to maintain a high level of performance under challenging conditions—a trait that engineers now aim to replicate in robotics.

Bringing Biology into Robotics

The collaborative research team behind this breakthrough includes Assistant Professor Shigaki Shunsuke of the National Institute of Informatics (NII), Professor Kurabayashi Daisuke of the School of Engineering at Science Tokyo, and Associate Professor Owaki Dai of the Graduate School of Engineering at Tohoku University. Their work was published in the journal npj Robotics on February 9, 2026.

By translating the moth’s biological strategies into engineering design, the researchers developed a resilient odor-tracking robot. This robot mimics the moth’s ability to compensate for sensory impairment, allowing it to continue locating odor sources even if one sensor fails. This approach marks a significant departure from conventional odor-guided robots, which usually require both sensors to be fully operational for accurate performance.

Challenges with Conventional Odor-Guided Robots

Robots that track odors have many potential applications, including:

  • Detecting hazardous chemicals or explosives

  • Searching for disaster survivors in collapsed buildings

  • Monitoring environmental pollution

However, most traditional odor-guided robots assume that sensors on both sides function perfectly. If a sensor fails or gets damaged, the robot often loses its ability to locate the odor source accurately. In some cases, the system may fail entirely. This limitation has prevented robots from operating reliably in real-world conditions, where sensor impairment is likely.

Studying the Silkworm Moth

To address this challenge, the researchers first studied how silkworm moths handle the loss of one antenna. They observed adult male moths navigating toward odor sources under controlled conditions. When both antennae were intact, the moths could easily detect and track odors using spatial information from both sides.

When one antenna was removed, the moths didn’t give up. Instead, they adapted their behavior. The study found that moths integrate information from the remaining antenna with their body orientation and movement, allowing them to continue accurately tracking the odor source. This adaptive behavioral strategy is highly efficient and resilient, providing a blueprint for robotic design.

Implementing the Strategy in Robots

Next, the team implemented the moth-inspired strategy in a robotic platform. The robot was equipped with an olfactory sensor system analogous to the silkworm moth’s antennae. Experiments were conducted in both indoor laboratories and outdoor environments, including areas with wind disturbances and complex terrain.

The results were impressive. Even when one of the robot’s sensors was disabled, it maintained performance levels comparable to those observed when both sensors were operational. The robot could efficiently locate odor sources in a wide range of conditions, demonstrating the power of the biologically inspired adaptive strategy.

This represents a major advancement in robust autonomous navigation, showing that robots can perform reliably even under sensor impairment, something that was previously difficult to achieve with conventional odor localization algorithms.

Why This Research Matters

The implications of this study extend far beyond the lab. By incorporating adaptive strategies inspired by insects, robots can become more resilient and autonomous, capable of operating in unpredictable or hazardous environments. Some potential applications include:

  1. Disaster Response
    Robots could navigate through collapsed buildings or hazardous zones, locating survivors or dangerous substances even if sensors are damaged.

  2. Environmental Monitoring
    Robots could detect pollution sources, toxic chemicals, or leaks in industrial facilities, maintaining accuracy even when some sensors fail.

  3. Security and Hazard Detection
    Odor-guided robots could track explosives or illegal substances in public areas, providing an extra layer of safety.

This research also highlights the growing field of bio-inspired robotics, where insights from biology are used to solve engineering problems. By studying how insects, animals, and other organisms survive and adapt in challenging environments, engineers can design systems that are not only efficient but also highly resilient.

Looking Ahead: The Future of Adaptive Robotics

The success of this insect-inspired approach opens the door to next-generation autonomous systems that are more flexible and fault-tolerant. Future robots could:

  • Continue missions despite partial sensor failure

  • Adapt to changing environments in real time

  • Perform long-term autonomous exploration without human intervention

This research also underscores the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, combining biology, robotics, engineering, and computer science. By learning from nature, scientists and engineers can create solutions that were once considered impossible.

Conclusion

The development of this insect-inspired odor-tracking robot represents a major step forward in robotics and autonomous systems. By studying silkworm moth behavior, researchers have created a system that can locate odor sources reliably even under sensor impairment, both indoors and outdoors.

This innovation not only enhances the capabilities of robotic systems but also provides a blueprint for designing resilient autonomous technologies capable of tackling real-world challenges. As bio-inspired robotics continues to grow, we may soon see robots that not only emulate nature but also surpass traditional engineering limitations, offering unprecedented levels of adaptability and reliability.

Reference:
Shunsuke Shigaki et al., Insect-inspired adaptive behavioral compensation strategy against olfactory sensory deficiency for robotic odor source localization, npj Robotics, 2026. DOI: 10.1038/s44182-026-00080-5

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