In a remarkable journey from fiction to reality, “Where the Robot Things Are” demonstrates how storytelling can catalyze technological innovation through emotional resonance. What began as a unique love story between a rat and a robot navigating treacherous landmine fields evolved into a real-world humanitarian mission when roboticists were moved by the film’s vision.
The story’s central concept – enabling rats to communicate their landmine discoveries to humans through technology – sparked the imagination of engineers and researchers who saw its practical potential. This creative seed has now blossomed into tangible progress, with open-source projects and even high school students in Los Angeles developing non-invasive bionic harnesses for rats.
Director Andrew McGregor’s deliberate choice to weave emerging technologies into his narrative while partnering with roboticists turned an animated tale into a blueprint for innovation, proving that art can not only envision the future but actively shape it. The film’s impact, from TEDx talks to YouTube features reaching hundreds of thousands, shows how a well-crafted story can bridge the gap between imaginative possibilities and real-world solutions to critical challenges like landmine detection.
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The P.Black Oomvelt RatPack is a wearable technology created for the giant African pouched rat to help them communicate to their human handlers when they find a landmine or object of interest. Additionally, the RatPack was made to be of service in the training of the rats and their potential uses in scouting new areas.
The RatPack functions through the use of an accelerometer embedded in a vest that the animals wear. The accelerometer monitors the animal’s body motion. Changes in the animal’s body motion are monitored in real-time by an embedded machine learning processor that detects when the animal makes certain gestures it has previously been trained to make in response to detecting a scent or object. These gestures are communicated to a person in real time through a webpage. This process is conceptually similar to how a smartwatch can detect if a person is walking or jogging by the motion of the wrist.
The RatPack also has an onboard camera that lets a rat broadcast live video from its environment. The video functionality also greatly assists in the training of the machine learning algorithms that enable the rats to better communicate with people.
Purpose
The purpose of this tutorial is to share the design and creation of the RatPack (in both hardware and software) with the community so that whoever is interested in replicating or adapting the device can benefit from it. If you consider commercializing your adaptation please reach out to us for partnership or licensing details.