{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,15]],"date-time":"2026-05-15T16:06:06Z","timestamp":1778861166791,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":31,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2017,10,30]],"date-time":"2017-10-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1509321600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Biosynthetic infochemical communication is an emerging scientific field employing molecular compounds for information transmission, labelling, and biochemical interfacing; having potential application in diverse areas ranging from pest management to group coordination of swarming robots. Our communication system comprises a chemoemitter module that encodes information by producing volatile pheromone components and a chemoreceiver module that decodes the transmitted ratiometric information via polymer-coated piezoelectric Surface Acoustic Wave Resonator (SAWR) sensors. The inspiration for such a system is based on the pheromone-based communication between insects. Ten features are extracted from the SAWR sensor response and analysed using multi-variate classification techniques, i.e., Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN), and Multilayer Perception Neural Network (MLPNN) methods, and an optimal feature subset is identified. A combination of steady state and transient features of the sensor signals showed superior performances with LDA and MLPNN. Although MLPNN gave excellent results reaching 100% recognition rate at 400 s, over all time stations PNN gave the best performance based on an expanded data-set with adjacent neighbours. In this case, 100% of the pheromone mixtures were successfully identified just 200 s after they were first injected into the wind tunnel. We believe that this approach can be used for future chemical communication employing simple mixtures of airborne molecules.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s17112489","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,10,30]],"date-time":"2017-10-30T12:16:23Z","timestamp":1509365783000},"page":"2489","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["Ratiometric Decoding of Pheromones for a Biomimetic Infochemical Communication System"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Guangfen","family":"Wei","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Microsensors and Bioelectronics Laboratory, School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK"},{"name":"School of Information & Electronic Engineering, Shandong Technology and Business University, Yantai 264005, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sanju","family":"Thomas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Microsensors and Bioelectronics Laboratory, School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Marina","family":"Cole","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Microsensors and Bioelectronics Laboratory, School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Zolt\u00e1n","family":"R\u00e1cz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Microsensors and Bioelectronics Laboratory, School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK"},{"name":"School of Engineering and Computing Sciences, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4706-0049","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Julian","family":"Gardner","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Microsensors and Bioelectronics Laboratory, School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,10,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Ngo, T.D. (2015). Biomimetic Technologies: Principles and Applications, Woodhead Publishing."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"698","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neuron.2011.11.003","article-title":"Evolution of insect olfaction","volume":"72","author":"Hansson","year":"2011","journal-title":"Neuron"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1246","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neuron.2013.08.026","article-title":"Encoding of mixtures in a simple olfactory system","volume":"80","author":"Shen","year":"2013","journal-title":"Neuron"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"653","DOI":"10.1002\/cta.1829","article-title":"Design and umplementation of a modular biomimetic infochemical communication system","volume":"41","author":"Cole","year":"2013","journal-title":"Int. J. Circuit Theory Appl."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sakurai, T., Mitsuno, H., Haupt, S.S., Uchino, K., Yokohari, F., Nishioka, T., Kobayashi, I., Sezutsu, H., Tamura, T., and Kanzaki, R. (2011). A single sex pheromone receptor determines chemical response specificity of sexual behavior in the silkmoth Bombyx mori. PLoS Genet., 7.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pgen.1002115"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"199","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1570-7458.1990.tb01331.x","article-title":"Population variation and genetic control of pheromone communication systems in moths","volume":"54","year":"1990","journal-title":"Entomol. Exp. Appl."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"258","DOI":"10.1016\/j.procs.2011.09.061","article-title":"First order processing of complex olfactory information in the moth brain","volume":"Volume 7","author":"Kuebler","year":"2011","journal-title":"Procedia Computer Science"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"43001","DOI":"10.1088\/1748-3190\/10\/4\/043001","article-title":"Biosynthetic infochemical communication","volume":"10","author":"Olsson","year":"2015","journal-title":"Bioinspir. Biomim."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"525","DOI":"10.1016\/S0039-9140(00)00401-X","article-title":"Analytical studies of spodoptera littoralis sex pheromone components by electroantennography and coupled gas chromatography\u2014Electroantennographic detection","volume":"52","author":"Malo","year":"2000","journal-title":"Talanta"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"253","DOI":"10.1016\/0022-1910(93)90096-A","article-title":"Physiology and morphology of pheromone-specific sensilla on the antennae of male and female Spodoptera littoralis (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae)","volume":"39","author":"Ljungberg","year":"1993","journal-title":"J. Insect Physiol."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"547","DOI":"10.1016\/j.snb.2012.07.043","article-title":"Ratiometric info-chemical communication system based on polymer-coated surface acoustic wave microsensors","volume":"173","author":"Yang","year":"2012","journal-title":"Sens. Actuators B Chem."},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"Bula, W.P., Dimov, N.G., and Guerrero, A. (2010, January 3\u20137). Artificial gland for precise release of semiochemicals for chemical communication. Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemsity Life Science, Groningen, The Netherlands."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Cole, M., R\u00e1cz, Z., Gardner, J.W., and Pearce, T.C. (2012, January 28\u201331). A novel biomimetic infochemical communication technology: From insects to robots. Proceedings of the IEEE Sensors Conference, Taipei, Taiwan.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICSENS.2012.6411357"},{"key":"ref_14","unstructured":"Thomas, S., Leong, S.L.T., R\u00e1cz, Z., Cole, M., and Gardner, J.W. (2010, January 3\u20137). Design and implementation of a high-frequency surface acoustic wave sensor array for pheromone detection in an insect-inspired infochemical communication system. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences, Groningen, The Netherlands."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"106","DOI":"10.1016\/j.procs.2011.12.032","article-title":"Challenges of biomimetic infochemical communication","volume":"Volume 7","author":"Olsson","year":"2011","journal-title":"Procedia Computer Science"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"R\u00e1cz, Z., Gardner, J.W., and Cole, M. (2011, January 28\u201331). Volatile-based ratiometric infochemical communication system using polymer-coated piezoelectric sensor arrays. Proceedings of the IEEE Sensors Conference, Limerick, Ireland.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICSENS.2011.6127377"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2282","DOI":"10.1109\/JSEN.2015.2512303","article-title":"Particle System using Solidly Mounted Resonators","volume":"16","author":"Thomas","year":"2015","journal-title":"IEEE Sens. J."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"275","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1365-3032.2008.00645.x","article-title":"Biosynthetic pathways of the pheromone of the Egyptian armyworm Spodoptera littoralis","volume":"33","author":"Rosell","year":"2008","journal-title":"Physiol. Entomol."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1063\/1.3608138","article-title":"Pheromone synthesis in a biomicroreactor coated with anti-adsorption polyelectrolyte multilayer","volume":"5","author":"Dimov","year":"2011","journal-title":"Biomicrofluidics"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3189","DOI":"10.1109\/JSEN.2012.2192920","article-title":"Signal and Data Processing for Machine Olfaction and Chemical Sensing: A Review","volume":"12","author":"Marco","year":"2012","journal-title":"IEEE Sens. J."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1218","DOI":"10.1109\/TCBB.2013.101","article-title":"Chemical Name Extraction Based on Automatic Training Data Generation and Rich Feature Set","volume":"10","author":"Yan","year":"2013","journal-title":"IEEE\/ACM Trans. Comput. Biol. Bioinform."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"355","DOI":"10.1109\/JSEN.2004.827207","article-title":"Remarks on the Use of Multilayer Perceptrons for the Analysis of Chemical Sensor Array Data","volume":"4","author":"Pardo","year":"2004","journal-title":"IEEE Sens. J."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"141","DOI":"10.1049\/ip-smt:20045011","article-title":"Wavelet-based PCA defect classification and quantification for pulsed eddy current NDT","volume":"152","author":"Tian","year":"2005","journal-title":"IEEE Proc. Sci. Meas. Technol."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"189","DOI":"10.1109\/JSEN.2002.800688","article-title":"Pattern analysis for machine olfaction: A review","volume":"2","year":"2002","journal-title":"IEEE Sens. J."},{"key":"ref_25","unstructured":"Krzanowski, W.J. (1988). Principles of Multivariate Analysis: A User\u2019s Perspective, Oxford University Press."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3221","DOI":"10.1109\/JSEN.2014.2326693","article-title":"Detecting Volatile Organic Compounds in the ppb range with platinum-gate SiC-Field Effect Transistors","volume":"14","author":"Bur","year":"2014","journal-title":"IEEE Sens. J."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kohl, C.-D., and Wagner, T. (2014). Gas Sensing Fundamentals, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-54519-1"},{"key":"ref_28","unstructured":"Wasserman, P.D. (1993). Advanced Methods in Neural Computing, Van Nostrand Reinhold."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jatmiko, W., Fukuda, T., and Sekiyama, K. (November, January 30). Optimized probabilistic neural networks in recognizing fragrance mixtures using higher number of sensors. Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE Sensors, Irvine, CA, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICSENS.2005.1597877"},{"key":"ref_30","unstructured":"Zheng, X.Z.X., Jia, J.J.J., Hao, Y.H.Y., Zhang, S.Z.S., Chen, W.C.W., and Dai, J.D.J. (2010, January 8\u201310). Probabilistic neural network based motor cortical decoding method and hardware implementation. Proceedings of the 2010 IEEE International Symposium on Computer-Aided Control System Design, Yokohama, Japan."},{"key":"ref_31","unstructured":"Devijver, P.A., and Kittler, J. (1982). Pattern Recognition, A Statistical Approach, Prentice\u2013Hall."}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/17\/11\/2489\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T18:48:53Z","timestamp":1760208533000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/17\/11\/2489"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2017,10,30]]},"references-count":31,"journal-issue":{"issue":"11","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,11]]}},"alternative-id":["s17112489"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s17112489","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2017,10,30]]}}}