Robot Rat "Sees" With Whiskers

Abstract

Most robots view the world with camera eyes. Now researchers at the University of Sheffield and the Bristol Robotics Laboratory in the United Kingdom have built a ratlike robot that feels its way with quivering whiskers. With its ability to gauge the textures and shapes of objects, the “SCRATCHbot” (Spatial Cognition and Representation Through active touCH) could help explore areas where normal robots can't see clearly, such as dark or dusty environments or even underwater, says robot builder Tony Prescott, a computational neuroscientist. In real rats, the whiskers sweep back and forth about 20 times a second, bending when they touch something. Receptors in the whisker follicles then send messages to the brain. The robot's whiskers vibrate up to six times per second, feeding sensory information back to a computer-simulated rat brain. Older “rat” robots could move sensors back and forth, but SCRATCHbot can move its whiskers in many different planes and spread or bunch them to explore different areas, says Prescott. This helps provide a more realistic model of the neural networks behind whisker control, observes whisker robotics expert Anil Seth of the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom. ![Figure][1] CREDIT: MARTIN PEARSON AND BEN MITCHINSON The technology could be used to help locate fire survivors in a smoky building or, less glamorously, to assess the texture of carpets or floors as part of a robot vacuum cleaner, says Prescott. He's now working on smartening up his rat with a simulated hippocampus—a brain area that can memorize maps of an environment. [1]: pending:yes