The antenna only stays biologically and chemically active for up to four hours after being removed from a live moth, but the researchers say this could be extended b storing them in the fridge.

It’s a moth, it’s a plane, it’s … the Smellicopter, a little drone that senses odors with an onboard moth antenna. Seriously, that’s the scientists’ real name for their creation, a ...

During tests in the UW research lab, Smellicopter was naturally tuned to fly toward smells that moths find interesting, such as floral scents. Researchers hope that future work could use the moth ...

A team has developed Smellicopter: an autonomous drone that uses a live antenna from a moth to navigate toward smells. Smellicopter can also sense and avoid obstacles as it travels through the air.

Researchers have developed an autonomous drone that uses a live antenna from a moth to navigate toward smells. Smellicopter can also sense and avoid obstacles as it travels through the air.

Smellicopter is also able to sense and avoid obstacles as it flies through the air. Researcher Melanie Anderson says by using an actual moth antenna, the team was able to harness the sensitivity ...

The tube-like moth antenna slides right onto a pair of thin metal wires that enable the autonomous drone to pick up on its cellular activity. There's a spike in activity when it picks up on the ...

A University of Washington-led team has developed Smellicopter: an autonomous drone that uses a live antenna from a moth (brown arc on top of the drone) to navigate toward smells. The researchers also ...

“We’re measuring electrical activity in the antenna, which is very, very faint,” Sullivan says. Some moths eat flower nectar, so their antennae are highly tuned to those smells.

Antenna output was between 10 µ V and 1 mV in response to stimuli, so they sent the gain to 1,000 after some experimentation. The resistance of the antenna arrangement was between 500 and 750 k Ω.