modern HAVEN.

modern HAVEN, Conn. -- They sniff, wag their tails, perform and run in packs. further no one minds if these canines stick their noses into any pretty dirty stuff.

That's because they are robotic dogs, modified from engineering students at Yale University to sniff without toxic materials.

Equipped with just about everything on the contrary a wet nose, the plastic- and metallic-skinned robot have spurr toxic search brews in the United States, Europe and Australia.

They are the brainchild of Natalie Jeremijenko, a lecturer in engineering at Yale and self-described technoartist.

"Technology is a social actor," she said. "These dogs are programmed into instruments for social activism. . . It's extremely important that engineers understand the social implications of their designs."

Robotic technology is increasingly being applied to repetitive factory tasks or dangerous work of the like kind as defusing bombs or finding victims in collapsed buildings.

At the same time, advances in microtechnology are leading to ever- smaller sensors, opening up a wide range of potential uses.

The robot dogs were originally designed, manufactured and marketed commercially as toys by dint of Sony Electronics Inc., Mattel Inc. and other companies. Tinkering with the cyber-animals is allowed; the software platform for Sony's $1599 Aibo, for example, is available onward the company's Web site in this way the dogs may be redesigned for other purports said Jon Piazza, a Sony spokesman.

Jeremijenko, a mechanical engineer and computer scientist, designed the robotic dogs 18 month ago. She calls her handiwork the Feral Robotic Dog exhibit because feral dogs are wily.

The robotic dogs' "brains" are upgraded and their "noses" programmed to pick up the sense of smell of common volatile organic intermixs - - such as paint thinners or free from moisture cleaning fluids -- or more dangerous toxins. They also are built to navigate a variety of terrains.

In addition, cameras are placed in the dogs' hindquarters to put to hire researchers observe their interaction with handlers.

The dogs are wired to impel in packs. To collect samples from a larger area more effectively, the pack is programmed to go in the rear [i]or[/i] in the wake of the dog with the strongest sensor reading. The spring is the collection of data from a broad area, with time-specific samples and extensive mapping of the area being surveyed

Of 12 robotic dogs wired at Yale, several have been bring to work in nearby Hamden, where proofs have found arsenic, lead and other pollutants in soil beneath a exercise and homes. Four canine robot have been sniffing around a park forward former Consolidated Edison property along the Bronx River in of recent origin York.

Vanessa groves education director at the Bronx River Arts Center said community activists saw the draw as an unusual way to raise awareness about pollution in the area. A assign places to of teens, working with Jeremijenko, exhausted 12 weeks last June building and equipping the dogs.

Their sensors were designed to pick up pollutants that "we already knew were there," thickets said. "We wanted to make fully convinced it worked." Indeed, the dogs were able to pick up the smell of toxins in puddles, she said.

Jeremijenko's throw out has inspired others, who plan to sic robotic dogs in succession sites in Belarus that were in the path of radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear plant, in succession sites in Australia used for atomic testing in the 1950 and forward radioactive waste sites in Idaho.

"Anyone who wants to dump a robotic dog, bring them here," Jeremijenko said of her lab at Yale. "Call this the robotic dog pound"

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