Detection and tracking of chemical trails in bio-inspired sensory systems

Many aquatic organisms exhibit remarkable abilities to detect and track chemical signals when foraging, mating and escaping. For example, the male copepod T. longicornis identifies the female in the open ocean by following its chemically flavoured trail. Here, we develop a mathematical framework in which a local sensory system is able to detect the local concentration field and adjust its orientation accordingly. We show that this system is able to detect and track chemical trails without knowledge of the trail’s global or relative position. These findings could have implications on deciphering how organisms decode sensory information and on the development and deployment of bio-inspired sensory systems.