Free Republic

Artificial whiskers that mimic the way rats and seals sense their prey might one day let planetary rovers or uncrewed submarines explore the shape and texture of strange objects they encounter on their travels. So says Joe Solomon and Mitra Hartmann at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, who have developed delicate artificial whiskers - in both steel and plastic - that can accurately sense different shapes and textures. Rats actively rotate, or "whisk", their whiskers against objects to discern features, while seals keep their whiskers relatively fixed to sense changes in wake flow that might mean prey is nearby. Previous...