Researchers unveil whiskered robot rat

A team of scientists have developed an innovative robot rat which can seek out and identify objects using its whiskers. The SCRATCHbot robot will be demonstrated this week (1 July 2009) at an international workshop looking at how robots can help us examine the workings of the brain. Researchers from the University of Sheffield and the Bristol Robotics Lab, a partnership between the University of the West of England and the University of Bristol, have developed the SCRATCHbot, which is a significant milestone in the pan-European "ICEA" project to develop biologically-inspired artificial intelligence systems. As part of this project Professor Tony Prescott, from the University of Sheffield´s Department of Psychology, is working with the Bristol Robotics Lab to design innovative artificial touch technologies for robots that will also help us understand how the brain controls the movement of the sensory systems. The new technology has been inspired by the use of touch in the animal kingdom. In nocturnal creatures, or those that inhabit poorly-lit places, this physical sense is widely preferred to vision as a primary means of discovering the world. Rats are especially effective at exploring their environments using their whiskers.