A robotic rat which can scurry through the dark thanks to its whiskers could one day rescue people from burning buildings.

The robot has been designed by Prof Tony Prescott from the University of Sheffield and Dr Tony Pipe, of Bristol Robotics Lab. One of the problems with fires is that there is a lot of smoke which makes finding things difficult. You cannot use many visual systems because of the heat.

However SCRATCHbot can find objects using its sensory whiskers in dark or smoky rooms. The pair of boffins say that the use of sensory whiskers was a real break through and even added: 'A robot like this could help a rescue operation.'