The flow generated by an active olfactory system of the red swamp crayfish

Crayfish are nocturnal animals that mainly rely on their chemoreceptors to locate food. On a crayfish scale, chemical stimuli received from a distant source are dispersed by an ambient flow rather than molecular diffusion. When the flow is weak or absent, food searching can be facilitated by currents generated by the animal itself. Crayfish employ their anterior fan organs to produce a variety of flow patterns. Here we study the flow generated by Procambarus clarkii in response to odour stimulation. We found that while searching for food the crayfish generates one or two outward jets. These jets induce an inflow that draws odour to the crayfish's anterior chemoreceptors. We quantified velocity fields in the inflow region using Particle Image Velocimetry. The results show that the inflow velocity decreases proportionally to the inverse distance from the animal so that it takes about 100 s for an odour plume to reach the animal's chemoreceptors from a distance of 10 cm. We compare the inflow generated by live crayfish with that produced by a mechanical model. The model consists of two nozzles and an inlet and provides two jets and a sink so that the overall mass flux is zero. Use of the model enabled us to analyze the inflow at various jet parameters. We show that variation of directions and relative intensities of the jets allows the direction of odour attraction to be changed. These results provide a rationale for biomimetic robot design. We discuss sensitivity and efficiency of such a robot.