The inviting smell of a freshly baked cookie immediately triggers a motor response to search for the source of that smell. Often the cookie can be easily found.
This everyday event that we perform without a thought is an amazing feat that combines our superior ability to smell the cookie and computational prowess to determine the direction to move toward the cookie. Robots that possess similar capabilities are yet to be developed as the basic biological principles that are needed to perform this task are yet to be fully understood.
Locusts have survived for at least 8 million years - longer than humans have been on this planet - in nearly all parts of the earth. Their many remarkable capabilities include seeing, hearing and smelling things that humans cannot sense, jumping multiple times their body length, the uncanny ability to fly up to 100 kilometers a day and switching between solitary and swarm phases as needed for survival. They use these capabilities to find food, avoid predators, propagate their species, and do all things necessary to keep them alive.
