A Belgian nonprofit organization is in the process of equipping and training giant pouched rats in Tanzania to help first responders find and save survivors in disaster zones.
The project, conceived by the nonprofit group APOPO, is working to equip the tiny rodents with small, high-tech backpacks that contain two-way microphones, location transmitters, and video cameras. When a rat finds a survivor, it activates a switch on the backpack that pings the location, and the microphone will let a rescue team communicate with the trapped survivor.
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“Rats are typically quite curious and like to explore — and that is key for search and rescue,” Donna Kean, the project’s leader and a behavioral scientist, told CNN.
Although the rats are not currently used in real-world scenarios, the training for the project is underway, and electrical engineers are working with the nonprofit group to produce the tiny, high-tech packs. A prototype, which included a video camera, has been successfully used. The lead engineer on the project, Sander Verdiesen, said the prototype worked “better than expected.”
The biggest technological challenge has been shrinking the technology down to rat size. When the rats were using the prototypes, it was still bulkier and heavier than ideal, according to Verdiesen. The packs were 3.9 inches long and 1.6 inches deep and weighed just under five ounces.
“The rats were walking up against something that they would normally be able to go under, and suddenly they can’t anymore,” Verdiesen told the outlet.
In order to shrink the packs down more, Verdiesen said he plans to put everything onto a single printed circuit board, which he hopes will be ready later this year.
Kean said she hopes training each rat will only take six to nine months, although they are integrated into the training program from birth. Each rat is trained in 15-minute training sessions five days a week, during which they go through disaster zone simulations. The rats are released into the simulation and instructed to press a button on the vest when they find a survivor in an empty room. They then return to the main room, where they receive treats. As the project continues, more distractions are added to simulate a real disaster zone, including loud noises like drilling.
The next phase of the project will include multiple stories that the rats will need to navigate, but the results are promising so far, Kean said.
“They have to be super confident in any environment, under any conditions, and that’s something that these rats are naturally good at,” Kean said. “Even if our rats find just one survivor at a debris site, I think we would be happy to know it’s made a difference somewhere.”
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The nonprofit organization, APOPO, has existed for a decade, training dogs and rats to use scent detection to find landmines and detect tuberculosis. However, the project with Kean only started in 2021, though the concept existed earlier.
