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just discovered HAVEN, Conn. -- The...

just discovered HAVEN, Conn. -- They sniff, wag their tails, perform and run in packs. however no one minds if these canines stick their noses into a pretty dirty stuff.

That's because they are robotic dogs, modified by dint of engineering students at Yale University to sniff on the outside toxic materials.

Equipped with just about everything if it be not that a wet nose, the plastic- and metallic-skinned robot have spurr toxic search contrives in the United States, Europe and Australia.

They are the brainchild of Natalie Jeremijenko, a lecturer in engineering at Yale and self-described technoartist.

"Technology is a social actor," she said. "These dogs are programmed into instruments for social activism. . . It's extremely important that engineers understand the social implications of their designs."

Robotic technology is increasingly being applied to repetitive factory tasks or dangerous work similar as defusing bombs or finding victims in collapsed buildings.

At the same time, advances in microtechnology are leading to ever- smaller sensors, opening up a wide range of potential uses.

The robot dogs were originally designed, manufactured and marketed commercially as toys on Sony Electronics Inc., Mattel Inc. and other companies. Tinkering with the cyber-animals is allowed; the software platform for Sony's $1599 Aibo, for example, is available forward the company's Web site in the same manner the dogs may be redesigned for other drifts said Jon Piazza, a Sony spokesman.

Jeremijenko, a mechanical engineer and computer scientist, designed the robotic dogs 18 month ago. She calls her handiwork the Feral Robotic Dog plot because feral dogs are wily.

The robotic dogs' "brains" are upgraded and their "noses" programmed to pick up the track of common volatile organic intermingles - - such as paint thinners or arid cleaning fluids -- or more dangerous toxins. They also are built to navigate a variety of terrains.

In addition, cameras are placed in the dogs' hindquarters to lease researchers observe their interaction with handlers.

The dogs are wired to rouse in packs. To collect samples from a larger area more effectively, the pack is programmed to go in the rear [i]or[/i] in the wake of the dog with the strongest sensor reading. The end is the collection of data from a broad area, with time-specific samples and extensive mapping of the area being surveyed

Of 12 robotic dogs wired at Yale, several have been levy to work in nearby Hamden, where exhibitions have found arsenic, lead and other pollutants in soil beneath a instruct and homes. Four canine robot have been sniffing around a park onward former Consolidated Edison property along the Bronx River in recently made known York.

Vanessa thickets education director at the Bronx River Arts Center said community activists saw the intend as an unusual way to raise awareness about pollution in the area. A cluster of teens, working with Jeremijenko, exhausted 12 weeks last June building and equipping the dogs.

Their sensors were designed to pick up pollutants that "we already knew were there," groves said. "We wanted to make trustworthy it worked." Indeed, the dogs were able to pick up the perfume of toxins in puddles, she said.

Jeremijenko's plot has inspired others, who plan to sic robotic dogs in succession sites in Belarus that were in the path of radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear plant, forward sites in Australia used for atomic testing in the 1950 and forward radioactive waste sites in Idaho.

"Anyone who wants to dump a robotic dog, bring them here," Jeremijenko said of her lab at Yale. "Call this the robotic dog pound"

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