Robot Inspired by Star-Nosed Mole Feels Its Way Without Vision

For years, robot designers have defaulted to vision first. Cameras, depth sensors and image recognition dominate most robotic systems built around seeing.

But vision has limits. Transparent, occluded or hidden objects cannot be detected if a camera cannot see them. Humans share this weakness: with eyes closed, even holding a cup becomes difficult.

The University of Southern Denmark team decided to try another path. It proposed a concept robot that does not rely on vision, inspired by the star-nosed mole. For robots, overreliance on vision can also make manipulation unreliable.

The star-nosed mole’s nose is considered the most precise tactile organ among mammals. Its star-shaped structure consists of 22 tentacle-like rays that move rapidly and can touch up to 12 different objects per second.

The mole has an extremely fast metabolism, eating 15% of its body weight in 10 minutes and foraging almost constantly, with the star handling most of the search work. Each ray is covered with microscopic Eimer’s organs, named after 19th-century biologist Theodor Eimer, who first found them in European moles.

The star-nosed mole has about 25,000 Eimer’s organs on its nose, totaling roughly 100,000 nerve endings. By comparison, the human hand has only 17,000 nerve endings.

Eimer’s organs contain three main receptor types. A basal nerve ending records basic touch information, such as obstacle location or underground prey vibrations. Merkel cells connect to another nerve and convey slightly more complex shape information through continuous contact with the nasal rays.

The third and most complex type is unique to the mole: a dense cluster of nerve endings beneath the skin surface that is key to sensing microscopic textures.