EVANSTON, IL, United States (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have created 'robotic whiskers' to explore how many mammals explore their environment and construct three-dimensional images of their world.

Two Northwestern University engineers have been studying the whisker system of rats to better understand how mechanical information from the whiskers is transmitted to the brain and to develop artificial whisker arrays for engineering applications.

Mitra Hartmann, assistant professor of biomedical and mechanical engineering, and Joseph Solomon, one of Hartmann`s graduate students, have developed arrays of robotic whiskers that sense in two dimensions, mimicking the capabilities of mammalian whiskers. They demonstrate that the arrays can sense information about both object shape and fluid flow.

'We show the bending moment, or torque, at the whisker base can be used to generate three-dimensional spatial representations of the environment,' said Hartmann. 'We used this principle to make arrays of robotic whiskers that in many respects closely replicate rat whiskers.'

The technology, she said, could be used to extract the three-dimensional features of almost any solid object.

A paper about the arrays, which may find application on assembly lines, in pipelines or on land-based rovers or underwater vehicles, appears in the journal Nature.