Study: Robots could sense shapes with whiskers

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Seals track prey with them, rats sense nearby objects with them and robots could soon be using whiskers in a similar way to see in the dark and avoid obstacles, researchers said on Wednesday.

They developed an array of robotic whiskers that move in any pattern over an object just as they do on living creatures.

"We constructed an array of whiskers that rely on sensing only at the base. As the whiskers move over an object, we can then figure out the object's three dimensional properties," said Professor Mitra Hartmann, of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

"Or instead of the whiskers moving, a fluid can flow against the whiskers and we can figure out the direction and speed of the fluid at different points of the flow," the expert on biomedical and mechanical engineering added in an interview.

This type of technology could allow the extraction of the three-dimensional features of almost any solid object, the scientist said.

Developing artificial whiskers that move like the real thing has been challenging because it has been difficult to determine where along a whisker something has touched.

Hartmann and graduate student Joseph Solomon solved the mystery which enabled them to build an array of whiskers that can sweep in an arbitrary pattern over an object. They reported their findings in the journal Nature.

Whiskers are an important feature for rats to survive, Hartmann said. They connect to neurons in the brain which are arranged in the same way the whiskers are arranged on the animal's face.

"These robotic whiskers are helping us understand the mechanical variables that are important for the real rat -- going into its whiskers -- as it explores in real life," she said.

The whiskers could be used on land-based robots on difficult terrain and on underwater vehicles. In fog or glare the whiskers could replace cameras or could be used to find an obstruction in a dark underground pipeline.

"On an autonomous rover they could be used for obstacle avoidance, to characterize terrain and ground texture, to verify the speed of the rover and to determine whether the wheels of the rover are slipping," Hartmann added.