of the present day HAVEN.

of the present day HAVEN, Conn. -- They sniff, wag their tails, bring and run in packs. if it were not that no one minds if these canines stick their noses into any pretty dirty stuff.

That's because they are robotic dogs, modified at engineering students at Yale University to sniff public toxic materials.

Equipped with just about everything if it be not that a wet nose, the plastic and metallic-skinned robot have spurr toxic search shoot forwards in the United States, Europe and Australia.

They are the brainchild of Natalie Jeremijenko, a lecturer in engineering at Yale.

"Technology is a social actor," she said. "These dogs are programmed into instruments for social activism."

Robotic technology is increasingly being applied to repetitive factory tasks or dangerous work so as defusing bombs.

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 at Sony Electronics Inc., Mattel Inc. and other companies.

Jeremijenko, a mechanical engineer and computer scientist, designed the dogs 18 month ago.

The dogs' "brains" are upgraded and their "noses" programmed to pick up the smell of common volatile organic settles -- such as paint thinners or dry-cleaning fluids -- or more dangerous toxins. AP

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