Robo-Rats Hunt Landmines

But, now the Colombian government is inviting Dr. Chapin to become a partner in their war against landmines. “We would like to use this as an experiment to see whether this kind of humanitarian de-mining really can be done using my rats,” says Chapin. “I’ve done it in the lab and now I want to prove it in a real environment.”

Colombian police under the command of Colonel Javier Cifuentes had already begun experimenting with rats over the last year. The lightweight rodents do not accidentally trigger mines to detonate – an often fatal problem using dogs. But, Cifuentes and his team are learning that rats’ bad reputations are well deserved and it is hard to get the vermin to behave.

The Colombians hope that Chapin’s Robo-rats will solve their problems. “Our rats are difficult to work with and sometimes run off when we try to use them outside,” says Cifuentes. “When that happens we lose a huge investment of time and money. Since Dr. Chapin’s technique could allow us to control the animals, obviously, we are very interested.”

Another big advantage of the Robo-rats is how quickly they can be trained. Says Cifuentes, “Right now it takes us six months or more to train our rats using a similar method to how we train dogs.”

But the robo-rats can be taught in a fraction of the time. “Robo-rats are ready to hunt for landmines after just ten days. We really program the animals rather than train them,” explains Dr. Chapin. “It’s all done with electronics.”

Soon a battalion of Chapin’s furry bionic soldiers may land in Colombia ready to save civilians from the killing fields protecting hidden cocaine crops and rebel bases.

“We are very excited by the potential here,” says Cifuentes. “If this works not only our country, but the whole world could be different.” Every 28 minutes someone on earth steps on a landmine and is killed or maimed.

Rats have been hated as crop killers and disease carriers for millennia, but now may become a symbol of hope to Colombians, plagued for decades by this deadly man-made infestation far worse than vermin.

Colombia has the world’s second highest incidence per-capita of civilian casualties due to landmines each year, trailing only war-torn Angola in Africa. Children playing in the countryside often never return and poor farmers looking for empty fields sometimes lose their lives to hidden landmines. The entire country has been traumatized by the daily reports of senseless deaths and the site of thousands of children missing limbs.

The human toll exacted by landmines has haunted Javier Cifuentes all his life, and in his youth he made a promise to himself that somehow, someday he would alleviate the suffering of his countrymen.

After completing a university education, the idealistic young Cifuentes enlisted in the Colombian police force. Quickly distinguishing himself, Cifuentes eventually rose to the rank of Colonel.

Never forgetting the horrors that originally made him choose a path of public service, Cifuentes remained on the lookout for a way he might use his police position to help his people.

When Cifuentes read of a program in Africa to use rats to find landmines, the Colonel realized he had at last found his answer. On fire with the idea of reproducing the program in Colombia, Cifuentes quickly began putting together a team.

Cifuentes first turned to Colombia’s elite animal commandos, the “Carabineeros.” Battle hardened by decades of frontline war against the drug lords, the Carabineeros are among the world’s greatest experts in training horses and dogs for combat and law enforcement operations. Two Carabineeros were reassigned to the Colonel and he quickly put them to work with their first group of rats.

Next Cifuentes recruited a veterinarian to care for the health of the animals, a research scientist from Nacional University in Bogotá, and a military explosives expert who could replicate the conditions that the rats will face in the mine fields.

With his small team of six humans and eight rats, Colonel Javier Cifuentes is determined to break the legacy of three decades of clashes with rebel separatists and narcotics kings that have made walking through the Colombian countryside a deadly game of Russian Roulette where every step could be your last. Till now the money expense has been unthinkable. It costs three dollars to plant a mine and one thousand dollars to defuse it.

But, that may soon change thanks to these remarkable rodents and the work being done on both American continents. According to Javier Cifuentes, the partnership with Chapin may prove the final, critical piece in their battle against the hidden killers.

“We don’t have access to the same kind of technology readily available in first world countries,” explains Cifuentes. “Having a partner in New York will be a tremendous benefit. There are things Americans can just walk into a store and pickup that take us weeks to order.”

“Right now I’m looking into doing the implant surgery and initial training here in Brooklyn,” says Chapin, “then we’ll take the rats down to Colombia for the final training in the wild.”

The surgery will take place at Chapin’s laboratory at the SUNY Health Science Center at the Brooklyn State University of New York.

Under anesthesia, super small, hair-thin wires are driven into specific areas of the rat’s brain. The wires are capped with plugs allowing electricity to run from a battery into the rat’s brain. The plugs are cemented onto the rat’s skull. Then the rat is given a tiny backpack with a battery, receiver, and computer chip allowing scientists to control the animal by laptop computer and joystick. A small camera helmet on the rat’s head allows scientists to see what the rat sees and control it like a toy car.

The rats are programmed in a maze. When the rat comes to a choice between right or left scientists tell it where to go. Moving the joystick right or left sends a signal to the backpack providing a tiny jolt of electricity to the brain of the rat.

“There is no pain,” assures Dr. Chapin, “the brain has no pain sensors.” The rat feels it is being touched on one side of its face or the other. When the rat moves in the direction of the touch, it is rewarded with a jolt of electricity to the pleasure center of its brain producing ecstasy. Soon the rat is addicted and eager to go wherever directed to get more pleasure.

“The few times it was tried with humans they experienced intense euphoria and well being,” says Dr. Chapin. “It is the same area of the brain stimulated by addictive drugs like cocaine.”

Ironically, if Colonel Cifuentes has his way these Robo Rat “addicts” will help stop the flow of cocaine out of Colombia into other countries. “Depending on the success of this project, we are looking at other ways the rats could be useful,” says the Colonel. “We would also like to train the animals to look for drugs, especially since this is such a big problem in my country.”

But the first step is to prove to the world what the rats can do. Colonel Javier Cifuentes has staked his personal reputation on the project and has directly managed ever step, working long hours of overtime to fit it in around his other duties as Director of the Sibate Police Academy.

The original plan did not include Chapin’s remotely controlled rats, so the training process has been long and costly.

Says the Colonel, “The first phase is for the animal and human to bond together and overcome any initial shock. The handlers spend as much time as possible with the rodents letting them crawl over their bodies and playing together. Next we begin to train the animal to detect explosives in the lab using mazes. We’ve been doing that for about six months now and feel we are ready to move on to the most difficult phase.”

“The third phase is having the animal detect explosives in open spaces. This is the hardest part because the rat is no longer restricted by a maze and the wind may carry the scent of the mines in a way that confuses the animal. The other major difficulty is that the animal may wander away from the job of detecting mines by any number of distractions.”

Here is where Dr. Chapin’s partnership can payoff in a big way. The Robo-Rat training is more than an electronic leash. It actually conditions the rodents to want to find explosives as willing search partners.

“The rat has a video camera on its back so we see what it sees and guide it wherever we want. It only takes us about a week and a half.” says Chapin. “But that is just the first step. Then the rat has to change from being guided by us to going off on its own to find explosives. We’re driving first, then we tell the rat to get in the drivers seat and take control.”

Each time the rat finds a landmine it is sent waves of euphoric pleasure directly into its brain. Soon the animal’s chief concern is finding more explosives and they are hooked. Says Chapin, “this is far more powerful than the simple food reward used by most animal trainers.”

Pure pleasure fuels the animals search for landmines but the people involved in the Colombian anti-landmine program need money. “Colombia has a limited budget for everything and getting funding for the program has been difficult,” says Cifuentes. “We have done everything locally within our own police budget, but we really will need international support if the project is going to work.”

Dr. John Chapin is looking into U.S. grants for the program like the one he originally received for the robo-rat research from DARPA, the US military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. That grant recently ran out and Chapin hopes the potential of the work in Colombia will attract new funding.

Javier Cifuentes wants to appeal directly to donors around the world looking to stop the continual tragedy of landmine injuries and deaths. Potential investors may include the United Nations, the Association of American States, as well as private donors.

Princess Diana of Britain was heavily involved in efforts to cleanup and disarm landmines before her death in 1997 and helped establish a foundation that may want to contribute to the work in Colombia. Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic Airlines gives heavily to anti-landmine charities and Chapin and Cifuentes hope he will consider backing their work.

Philanthropists would have a hard time finding a more worthy cause. The sad truth is that much of the world lives with that fear on a daily basis. Says Cifuentes, “If this works, robo-rats will change everything.”

– The End –
Copyright 2008
By Lance Laytner
Meritum Media