London (CNN) -- What do artificial whiskers and coffee-filled balloons have in common? 

The answer is that they are both tools on experimental robots -- but they are also being put forward as possible ideas to help future planetary explorations. 

"Shrewbot" is the latest in a line of robots developed by teams at the UK's Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL) that aims to test whether artificial whiskers could help a robot find its way around. 

Inspired by the Etruscan shrew -- one of the world's tiniest mammals -- scientists wanted to find out if a robot could explore its environment using touch instead of vision, just as rats, mice and shrews find food in the dark. 

Team leader Martin Pearson, who works at the Biotact project, said the research was primarily to assist biologists in their understanding of how an animal's touch sensing works. 

But he added: "Future robotic applications for this kind of sensing could be in search-and-rescue robots operating in smoke filled buildings or for sub-sea pipeline inspection robots in the murky depths of the sea." 

The idea has also been suggested as a way to explore planetary surfaces where there is limited vision. Speaking at a space conference at the UK's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, robotics expert and co-founder of the BRL, Alan Winfield, identified it as one of a number of advancements that might be useful to space scientists planning future missions. 

"I was speculating that whiskers could provide a planetary rover with the ability to feel its way around," he told CNN.  QUESTIONS:

Q1:
1. What is a novel kind of robot?
2. What sort of robot has just come about?
3. 
Q2:
1. Who developed the Shrewbot?
2. Who was responsible for the creation of the Shrewbot?
3. 
Q3:
1. What is another name for the UK's Bristol Robotics Laboratory?
2. How else is the UK's Bristol Robotics Laboratory referred to?
3. 
Q4:
1. What is one tool of experimental robots?
2. What's something that experimental robots make use of?
3. 
Q5:
1. What is one tool of experimental robots, besides artificial whiskers?
2. What's something that experimental robots make use of, in addition to artificial whiskers?
3. 
Q6:
1. What could robots do one day?
2. What's something that robots may one day be capable of?
3. 
Q7:
1. What could robots one day do in outerspace?
2. How could robots someday be useful in an outer space context?
3. 
Q8:
1. What is the purpose of artificial whiskers?
2. Why are robots given fake whiskers?
3. 
Q9:
1. What did BRL base its robots on?
2. What inspired the model of the BRL's robots?
3. 
Q10:
1. What is an Etruscan shrew?
2. How can the Etruscan shrew be described?
3. 
Q11:
1. Who was in charge of the robotic research?
2. Who was the Biotact team leader?
3. 
Q12:
1. Where does Martin Pearson work?
2. Where is Martin Pearson employed?
3. 
