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. 

Now, provide a numbered list of answers to these questions:

1. Which is a newer robot type?
2. Developed by?
3. A.k.a.?
4. Name one tool of trial bots?
5. Name another..
6. What else may they some day do?
7. Yes and what about in our galaxy?
8. Why fake facial hair?
9. What was the inspiration for BRL's bot?
10. What's that?
11. Who lead the research?
12. Where does he work?

Numbered answers:
1. Shrewbot
2. UK's Bristol Robotics Laboratory
3. BRL
4. artificial whiskers
5. coffee-filled balloons
6. search and rescue
7. Planetary rover
8. Gives it the ability to feel around
9. the Etruscan shrew
10. one of the tiniest mammals
11. Martin Pearson
12. the Biotact project