Eeeek! Robot Mimics Rats

Psikharpax has two cameras for eyes, two microphone ears
and a set of tiny wheels for locomotion.


From Live Science:

Psikharpax the robot rat is the creation of a team of French roboticists. Rather than setting their sights on human-level intelligence, they're trying to figure out and replicate the behaviors of a simpler creature - the rat.

"The rat is the animal that scientists know best, and the structure of its brain is similar to that of humans," says doctoral student Steve Nguyen, showing off Psikharpax at a research and innovation fair in Paris last week. The robot's unlikely name derives from a story attributed to the ancient greek writer Homer about a clever "king of the rats".

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