Mimicking sniffing for improving machine olfaction

Sniffing is an important component in mammalian olfaction, serving to draw odors into the nose for detection. Reviewing past studies on animal olfaction, certain aspects such as the sniffing frequency have been found to be common among macrosmotic animals. We compared the airflow velocity, volumetric flow during inspiration, and the cross-sectional area of the nasal cavity for various mammals. We find that bigger animals sniff at a lower frequency and each sniff has a higher airflow velocity. Looking at these aspects of sniffing in more detail and understanding the significance of these common values in animal olfaction informs the design of a pre-concentrator to improve performance in machine olfaction.