A Nose for Toxins: Feral Robotic Dogs - Sniffing Trouble
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An all-terrain locomotion system is a means to an end, which is delivering environmental sensors to the sites where they can do some good. Chemical sensors are added to the front areas of the dogs, often for less than $10 each, depending on the toxin they’re designed to detect. But don’t think they’re ready to let the dogs out after simply altering the locomotion system and adding a chemical sensor.
To really make these dogs into pollution bloodhounds, they need a new brain with new programming. The idea is to set up the brain so that, once the chemical sensor detects a pollutant, it will make the dog follow concentration gradients, so that it literally moves in on the “scent.” For one breed of robotic dog that plays tunes, some of the students have been trying to figure out how to modify it so that the songs play faster or become higher pitched as the concentration gradient of toxins increases.
With additional sensors and programming, some feral dogs can even be made to exhibit “pack behavior.” For example, when one dog finds a pollutant, it might begin whistling, with other dogs in the area running – er, rolling – over to investigate. (You can get somewhat more information at http://xdesign.ucsd.edu/feralrobots/).
The software is open source, and altering a robotic dog can be easier than you’d think. Indeed, Professor Jeremijenko has worked with high school students on remodeling dogs and releasing them.
The dogs that were released at Mission Bay in March 2005 apparently didn’t find any toxins, but it’s hardly the only area that could be hiding a deadly past. “Silicon Valley has more Superfund sites than any comparably sized region in America,” Professor Jeremijenko notes. Even outside of Silicon Valley, a number of areas have shown interest in using the dogs.
The Bronx River Art Center project investigated a former gas plant at East 173rd Street. The site was studied officially beginning in June of 2002, with studies completed in August of that year. Early in 2003, Professor Jeremijenko and several high school students released the dogs on the site to sniff out toxins. This is not the only site in the Bronx that has had feral robotic dogs wandering around in it; Cement Plant Park has also been visited.
At that latter release, two dogs homed in on a large rain puddle and began circling it. It seemed to suggest that rainwater could be driving toxins from the site up to the surface.
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