One of the drawbacks of sniffer dogs is that it is difficult or impossible to find out exactly which chemical species is triggering their response.
If a robot could perform this task effectively it could provide a substitute for sniffer dogs.
Langer12 suggests that odour is a very reliable means of detecting land mines as illustrated by the most effective mine detecting system - the sniffer dog.
This demonstration is seen as a step towards the development of chemical sensing robots which can perform some of the tasks currently undertaken by sniffer dogs.
We should have not hundreds but thousands of sniffer dogs at our ports and airports.
When the glue sniffer begins to inhale, the first sensation is a kind of numbness.
It would make sniffing more secretive, it would be harder to trace the sniffers and harder to treat them.
Certainly no sniffer dogs appear to be available.
