SEARCH & RESCUERats Sniff for Victims Under Rubble
Rats are commonly known as pests and spreaders of disease and many people’s worst nightmare. Yet they are very clever creatures, and can be trained just as well as dogs. Researchers train African hamster rats to search for earthquake victims under rubble.
Rats are commonly known as pests and spreaders of disease and many people’s worst nightmare. Yet they are very clever creatures, and can be trained just as well as dogs. The Belgian aid organization APOPO trains African hamster rats to search for earthquake victims under rubble, using a backpack on their backs, developed by TU/e students. Bram van Kasteren defended his master’s thesis on location determination in late December. This would eventually allow rescue workers to know exactly where to find the victim when the little rat hits the alarm button.
“Rats are small, curious and inquisitive, but above all they can smell extremely well,” explains Roel Jordans. He is a lecturer and researcher at TU/e’s Department of Electrical Engineering. He supervised Bram van Kasteren during his master’s thesis, which was completed just before Christmas.
It is that amazing sense of smell of the rat that inspired the non-profit organization APOPO, which has become known for successfully detecting land mines worldwide as well as detecting the specific odor of the disease tuberculosis in sputum samples. A few years ago the organization received a request from earthquake-prone Türkiye to use the rats to search for survivors under the rubble of collapsed buildings. That posed whole new challenges, where TU/e’s Electrical Engineering department was able to add its value.
Sniffing for Victims
Jordans: “To track down people buried under the rubble, the rat had to be in communication with the rescue workers. For that they needed a system with a microphone, camera, controller, GPS, antennas … you name it. Exactly the kind of work we specialize in. That’s how the project called RescueRats was born.”
Student Sander Verdiesen, now a graduate, was the first to pick up the gauntlet. For his 2019 internship, he developed a 3D-printed backpack with the necessary electronics for the rat. He even traveled to Tanzania to test and improve his design. That is where APOPO’s training center is located and where African hamster rats are prepared for their work.
