A robotic rat that can scurry through the dark using its plastic whiskers to navigate could be used to help rescue people from burning buildings, scientists said today. The device, known as Scratchbot, can track objects using whisker-like sensors andhas been labeled by its creators as a "significant milestone" in the development of animal-inspired artificial intelligence. The inventors at the Bristol Robotics Lab and University of Sheffield said robots that use feelers rather than vision.