The experimenters say that the small size of the rodents and excellent sense of smell makes them the perfect beast to help in similar disasters.
Scientists who are training rats to save people from under the debris of a structure after an earthquake have participated an update about the design. These scientists from Eindhoven University of Technology are training the rats to detect a survivor in a simulated room, pull a switch on their vest to spark a beeper and also return to base where they’re awarded with a treat, according to a report in CNN. The design, concoction of Belgiannon-profit organisation APOPO, also involves the use of a pack.
The pack will be equipped with a videotape camera, two- way microphone, and position transmitter to help first askers communicate with survivors, the CNN report further said.
The experimenters say that the small size of the rodents, excellent sense of smell together with their audacious spirit makes them the perfect beast to help in similar disasters.
” Rats are generally relatively curious and like to explore– and that’s crucial for hunt and deliverance,” Donna Kean, a behavioural exploration scientist and leader of the design, is quoted as saying by CNN.
The experimenters started working on the hunt and deliverance design in April 2021 after GEA approached APOPO about the possibility of using rats in similar operations.
The training is going on in Tanzania, where Ms Kean is adding the complexity of training terrain. She wants” to make it more like what they might encounter in real life,” according to CNN.
To make it close to reality, the coaches have added artificial sounds like drilling. And according to Ms Kean, the original results are promising. She added that rats are exposed to numerous types of sounds, lights and surroundings since birth since birth and this” heroinism process” is proving to be useful.
A many months agone , she had said that the platoon is planning to train 170 rats and they will be transferred to Turkey, which is prone to earthquakes, to work with a hunt and deliverance platoon.