Dutch engineer designs backpack for earthquake rescue rats

Rescue mouse with camera. Photo: APOPO

A Dutch electrical engineer has invented backpacks for East African rescue rats who are being trained to search for survivors in collapsed buildings.

Eindhoven University graduate Sander Verdesen works as a volunteer for the Belgian/American non-profit organization APOPO, which specializes in projects using mice, whose highly developed sense of smell is already used to track down landmines and tuberculosis.

Verdisen told RTL Nieuws that the RescueRat backpack project, based in Tanzania, aims to train rats to go into buildings after earthquakes or floods and search for survivors. “We train them in a designated place, with rubble and objects to distract them to see if they can find the person and then go back to where they went.”

The Verdiesen backpack contains a camera, microphone and transmitter. The rat also has a small ball attached to its chest that it can pull on when it finds a person. This will send a signal to the rescuers so they know to send more people to that particular location.

Verdesen said the project faces a number of challenges. Backpacks should be as light and compact as possible. Sending signals from underground is not easy either but we are working on it.

“With regard to mice, we need to know how sensitive they are to dispersants,” he said. “What if you come across a kitchen full of cheese? These are the kinds of problems we need to solve during training.

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