A tunable physical model of arthropod antennae

Insects rely on sensory cues—tactile, hygrometric, thermal, olfactory—gathered with a pair of head-mounted antennae to perform a wide variety of sensory guided tasks. Many questions regarding the potential impact of specific mechanical design features on antennal performance can be directly and thoroughly assessed using an artificial robotic model of an antenna. Here we describe a highly tunable, modular tactile robotic model antenna and experimentally test its tactile sensing performance using a custom testbed. Exploratory experiments demonstrate the importance mechanical “tuning” on tactile navigation performance. With this model robotic antenna, numerous mechanosensory manipulations are possible, providing a new experimental platform for future testing of specific biological hypotheses.