Most robot builders have used whiskers as a sensing device at one time or another. According to a new BetterHumans story, the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has issued a grant of about $690,000 to develop a new type of whisker array to assist mobile robots in confined spaces. The new sensors will used advanced signal processing to determine the shapes and textures of things they come into contact with. A test platform called WhiskerBot is being developed by the Adaptive Behaviour Research Group using, among other things, studies of rodent whisker neural circuitry.