The Smell: A sense "robotic forgotten"

José Luis Gordillo

Research professor

Robotics Laboratory

School of Engineering and Sciences - EIC

Tecnológico de Monterrey

Compared with the development of the Touch, with the Ear, but especially with the View, the Taste and the Smell have received little attention by the scientific community in Robotics. Currently the robots have advanced sensors that allow them to touch and feel the touch; they can hear interpreting sounds and even language; but above all, they have highly developed visual capabilities. In addition, various sensors allow them to know their location, calculate distances to elements of their environment, maintain their balance, know their speed of movement, among others.

However, the sensory capacities of Taste and Smell have been poorly incorporated into robots. Contrarily, in the animal kingdom, these senses are of capital importance that compete effectively with others, to allow the survival of the species. In particular the Smell allows the animals to perceive the food, the proximity of their predator or the pair to its reproduction, for example, without the need for the food, the predator or the couple to be visible from their position.

In this Conference we deal with the sensor of the Robotic Nose, from its construction as an electromechanical device, to its programming for the realization of follow-up tasks of odor sources. Emphasis is placed on the different functions of Smell: activation of alarms imminent danger, odor discrimination, sensing the concentration of odor, to finally trace the trace of the odor seeking to locate the source. The Robotic Nose seeks to emulate the behavior of the natural nose, through cycles of inhalation and exhalation. The tests to validate the capacity of this nose, particularly the "leaky tube set", are described, as well as the challenges to overcome so that this sensor can be integrated as a real Robotic Sense.

Dr. José Luis Gordillo

José Luis Gordillo graduated as Industrial Engineer from the Technological Institute of Aguascalientes, Mexico; He obtained a Master's degree (DEA) and a Doctorate in Computer Science from the National Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble, France, in 1983 and 1988, respectively. He was Assistant Professor in the Automatic Control Section of the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (CINVESTAV-IPN), in Mexico, from 1989 to 1990.

Currently José Luis Gordillo is a Research Professor at the School of Engineering and Sciences - EIC, of ​​the Tecnológico de Monterrey. He has been visiting professor at the Robotics Laboratory of the Department of Computational Sciences of Stanford University, Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (INRIA Rhone-Alpes) in Grenoble, and the Laboratoire d'Analyze et d'Architecture des Systèmes (LAAS-CNRS) in Toulouse, France, as well as other national and foreign universities. It belongs to the National System of Researchers, Level 1. It has directed final works of students of professional, graduated students of Masters (46) and of Doctorate (10). It also publishes regularly in magazines and congresses of the specialty. His research interest is focused on Computational Vision for applications in Robotics, particularly the development of Autonomous Vehicles and the collaboration between robots. He has also participated and directed research and development projects with companies such as Honeywell Bull in France, CYDSA, Sun Microsystems, IBM, Peñoles, TV Azteca and government entities such as the Government Research Department (DRET) and the Atomic Energy Center (CEA). in France, the Navy of Mexico, CONACyT, the Franco-Mexican Computer Laboratory (LaFMI) and the Water Institute of Nuevo León (IANL). Within the Institute has received the recognition of the Prize for Teaching Work (1998) and Rómulo Garza Prize for Research (2003). He is currently Director of the National Laboratory of Robotics, supported by CONACyT and the Tecnológico de Monterrey, in Monterrey, as well as the Leader of the Focus Group on Robotics. He was national coordinator of the Network of Robotics and Mechatronics of the Thematic Networks of CONACyT since its foundation (2010) to 2014.