Robot Rats Have a High Sense of Touch

It is a fact that rats are really good at going into small and dark places like debris and collapsed structures. Rats are skilled partly because they have a developed sense of touch. That’s why researchers are trying to build a rat-robot with a sense of touch – something that is arguably lacking today. Most search and rescue robots are guided not really autonomous and are guided with cameras.

The robotic rat could be more autonomous and might even be used for space exploration. However, there’s something else that researchers have to mimic: rats can squeeze their body to get into small spaces.