The ratbot or roborat, developed in 2002 by Sanjiv Talwar and John Chapin at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, is a rat with electrodes implanted in the medial forebrain bundle (MFB) and sensorimotor cortex of its brain. When used, the rats wear a small electronics backpack containing a radio receiver and electrical stimulator. The rat receives remote stimulation in the sensorimotor cortex via its backpack that causes the rat to feel a sensation in its left or right whiskers, and stimulation in the MFB that is interpreted as a reward or pleasure.

After a period of training and conditioning using MFB stimulation as a reward, the rats can be remotely directed to move left, right, and forward in response to whisker stimulation signals.

Applications

Currently, robo-rats are primarily being trained to detect explosives in areas where humans and existing robots cannot efficiently search, such as crowds and cargo ships. Other possible uses of the robo-rat include search and rescue operations following a natural disaster, military reconnaissance and landmine detection. A camera, transmitter, and GPS receiver that mount on rat backpacks have been designed to facilitate these purposes. However, it has been suggested that by interpreting biological signals directly from the brain of the rat, additional information could be obtained without the use of external equipment. This could be used, for example, to detect chemical and biological toxins in the air via the rat's own sense of smell.

Additionally, robo-rats have further applications in pure science. The robo-rat serves as a new experimental model for behavioral studies in psychology. MFB stimulation is a valuable tool in behavioral research, but traditional research using MFB stimulation has required that test animals be confined within an experimental chamber. This difficulty is avoided because the robo-rat operates wirelessly.

Principal funding for the development of the robo-rat has come from DARPA.

External links

• BBC News Feature on Ratbots.
• Nature article discussing Ratbots
• Original announcement of Ratbot in Nature