  Animals have evolved to rapidly detect and recognise brief and intermittent
encounters with odour packages, exhibiting recognition capabilities within
milliseconds. Artificial olfaction has faced challenges in achieving comparable
results -- existing solutions are either slow; or bulky, expensive, and
power-intensive -- limiting applicability in real-world scenarios for mobile
robotics. Here we introduce a miniaturised high-speed electronic nose;
characterised by high-bandwidth sensor readouts, tightly controlled sensing
parameters and powerful algorithms. The system is evaluated on a high-fidelity
odour delivery benchmark. We showcase successful classification of
tens-of-millisecond odour pulses, and demonstrate temporal pattern encoding of
stimuli switching with up to 60 Hz. Those timescales are unprecedented in
miniaturised low-power settings, and demonstrably exceed the performance
observed in mice. For the first time, it is possible to match the temporal
resolution of animal olfaction in robotic systems. This will allow for
addressing challenges in environmental and industrial monitoring, security,
neuroscience, and beyond.
