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Rescue Rats to Find Buried Victims
adaminnj writes "Rats are being trained to sniff out the buried victims of earthquakes and bomb blasts and could be sent to search for survivors in the same way as dogs. The idea of being rescued by a rat may not appeal to many people, but they have the advantage of being able to crawl almost anywhere and slip through small holes and crevices. Like dogs, they also have a highly acute sense of smell. But to be successful rescuers, they must be able to home in on victims and signal their position to waiting rescue teams."
This reminds me of an article that was pinned up in the copy room at Lucent in Allentown a while ago about rats that had been trained to run telecom and network cables through existing ductwork in schools. It was quite a few years ago so I forget the specifics, but it looked rather cool. Google has been unhelpful for the moment, but I'm still searching for more information.
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I've heard of stuff like this before.
I read of a project that was training weasels, or maybe ferrets, something in that family for the same type of thing. They're naturally curious, able to squeeze through unimaginable spots, etc.
The weasels were big enough to strap a little camera and transmitter to, and the idea was that they'd just go everywhere in the rubble.. Their natural curiosity would handle that part.
Them biting/eating victims (another natural instinct) was a problem. So the rescue critters would be "de-fanged", or rather have their teeth filed down when it was time to actually go to work. This of course, cripples the animal for the rest of it's life but the logic is "we sacrifice a couple of chinchillas to save one human life and it's worth it".
Of course, PETA and the like threw a fit. But even "animal lovers" look the other way when it comes to rats.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
I first thought this was something else than what I've been reading about recently, and not just about using yet another trained animal.
/. blurb forgot to mention that what's so special is that the rats have electrodes implanted in their brains, which send a signal to the rescuers when the rat has found what it's looking for.
I thought wrong.
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Thanks for the laugh :)
That's a valid question, though. I wonder how they would deal with that. Do you think rats might have a developed enough emotional system to allow a monitor to discern between happiness at a job well done, as compared to, "cheeeeeeeeeese"?
I have to wonder if we're capable of emulating animal brains and just don't know it yet. It seems to me that we could feasibly create something in a small package, maybe terrier sized (gotta have room for batteries) that uses 400hz power (for efficiency) and instead of a single processor, uses a ton of tiny simple processors with specialized tasks. I'm sure it will take us awhile to create an AI simple and efficient enough to drive that system on a comperable level with a live rat, but an inquisitive bug that relays sensor data while exploring everything around it might be plausible.
hm... time to head to the patent office
Rats are light. They are smart enough to do tasks when trained.
Not only that, but rats are also dirt-cheap - unlike an equally-equipped "robot" would be. Yeah, this is the 21st century, and humans do think they rule the planet, but nature really does have a head start on us.
Besides, robots would just eat old people's medicine for fuel.
Slashdot links this article on cyborg rats used in search and rescue. I've been told that one big problem is giving a guarantee that the rats don't begin eating the people (dead or alive) they find. I suppose that the stimulation of pleasure centers of the brain would dominate other such carnal urges. All of this is desirable for a few reasons. The computer-rat brain interface research is also very applicable to computer-human brain interface. I just went to this very interesting talk on the subject. Further, very dexterous robots with high level perception are few and far between. A rat is amazingly mobile and also has an excellent perception suite. Of course, along the way, projects like this could save lives, and that is always wonderful.
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Personally I think its a fantastic idea. I've had a pet rat myself, and known a couple of other people who had them. They're smart as hell, easy to train and they're cheap. I've heard of aid workers in Africa training rats to find mines in mine fields. They're too small to set the mine off, but can sniff out the explosives like a dog. If you can train a mine sniffing rat, a human sniffing rat should be easy.
Using animals as workers is actually something I like the idea of. Like mixing llamas in with sheep. The llamas will adopt the sheep as it's flock and the sheep aren't afraid of the llama. But a llama can and will kick a coyote's ass if one comes sniffing around. (And literally kick the coyote's ass.) I do feel sorry for the people that have to volunteer to lie under rubble while they're training the rats though, but hey, its for a good cause. (How would you put that on your resume? Well yes, for 6 months last year I was employed as a trapped earthquake victim for rat training. No, seriously.)