The SCRATCHbot was designed for search and rescue missions. What’s interesting about this one is that, much like a real rat, it uses its whiskers to detect disaster survivors in dangerous areas. The Bristol Robotics Laboratory developed the rat-bot over the past 6 years and now they hope to find interest for it in underground and underwater projects where vision can’t locate people/things.

It may have some other uses as well, like textile inspection and implementation inside intelligent vacuum cleaners, where it would be able to adjust the cleaning to the particular surface it senses. Video below.

[Engadget]

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