Neuromorphic Olfaction

With biological components of chemical sensing systems becoming well understood in terms of their structure and function, it is now possible to consider biomimetic models of olfaction and how they may be translated into functional engineering devices. This book presents an innovative interdisciplinary biomimetic approach to olfaction, addressing biology, hardware, software, and sensors. The text explores contributions to the realization of novel chemical sensing systems inspired by biological pathways and describes cutting-edge research on engineering aspects of olfaction, odor coding of neurons, chemical sensor arrays, and biologically modeled sensor robots.

Many advances have been made in the last decade in the understanding of the computational principles underlying olfactory system functioning. Neuromorphic Olfaction is a collaboration among European researchers who, through NEUROCHEM (Fp7-Grant Agreement Number 216916)—a challenging and innovative European-funded project—introduce novel computing paradigms and biomimetic artifacts for chemical sensing. The implications of these findings are relevant to a wide audience, including researchers in artifical olfaction, neuroscientists, physiologists, and scientists working with chemical sensors.

Developing neuromorphic olfaction from conceptual points of view to practical applications, this cross-disciplinary book examines:

• The biological components of vertebrate and invertebrate chemical sensing systems



• The early coding pathways in the biological olfactory system, showing how nonspecific receptor populations may have significant advantages in encoding odor intensity as well as odor identity



• The redundancy and the massive convergence of the olfactory receptor neurons to the olfactory bulb



• A neuromorphic approach to artificial olfaction in robots



• Reactive and cognitive search strategies for olfactory robots



• The implementation of a computational model of the mammalian olfactory system

The book’s primary focus is on translating aspects of olfaction into computationally practical algorithms. These algorithms can help us understand the underlying behavior of the chemical senses in biological systems. They can also be translated into practical applications, such as robotic navigation and systems for uniquely detecting chemical species in a complex background.