A British team of researchers has designed a robot which they claim is capable of reproducing the behaviour of rats by using whiskers to explore its environment.
The Scratchbot (Spatial cognition and representation through active touch) project being created by Bristol Robotics Laboratory and the University of Sheffield is part of the €6m EU-funded ICEA (Integrating cognition, emotion and autonomy) project which ends next month.
Using 18 plastic whiskers in a sweeping back-and-forth (5 times per second) motion to navigate its surroundings, the Scratchbot is a robot rat developed by the BRL, which is a partnership between the University of the West of England, Bristol, the University of Bristol, and the Active Touch Laboratory at the University of Sheffield.
"F'or a long time, vision has been the main biological sense most studied by scientists," said Dr Tony Pipe of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL).
"But active touch sensing is a key focus for those of us looking at biological systems which have implications for robotics research. Sensory systems such as rats' whiskers have particular advantages," he said.
It is hoped that the technology can be used when people are precarious situations like workers in collapsed mines.
"'Whisker technology could be used to sense objects and manoeuvre in a difficult environment. In a smoke-filled room for example, a robot like this could help with a rescue operation by locating survivors of a fire," said Pipe.
See: Video: Researchers build rat-like ScratchBot to map environments
"In humans, where sensors are at the fingertips, they are more vulnerable to damage and injury than whiskers. Rats have the ability to operate with damaged whiskers, and broken whiskers on robots could be easily replaced, without affecting the whole robot and its expensive engineering. This award is a welcome recognition that our research is a leap forward for technology in this area," said Pipe.
The group held a workshop earlier this year at the University of Sheffield where they demonstrated the Scratchbot.
"Although touch sensors are already employed in robots, the use of touch as a principal modality has been overlooked until now. By developing these biomimetic robots, we are not just designing novel touch-sensing devices, but also making a real contribution to understanding the biology of tactile sensing," said Professor Tony Prescott of the University of Sheffield.