Adaptive Chemical Sampling Device Inspired by Crayfish

摘要

Crayfish are known to generate water jets by waving their special appendages with a fan-like shape. The generated jets entrain surrounding water, and thus inflow converging toward their olfactory organs is induced. Therefore, the jets are considered to help crayfish collect water samples to search for the smell of a prey. Although crayfish are also known to be able to change the direction of the jet discharge, its implication in olfactory search has not been well understood. To investigate this issue, we have developed a chemical sampling device equipped with a jet discharger and electrochemical sensors. Results of computational fluid dynamics analyses and chemical detection experiments are presented to show that the angular range of water-sample collection can be adjusted by changing the jet discharge directions. The results suggest that the olfactory search efficiency can be improved by narrowing down the angular sample collection range as the search progress.