There has certainly been work on it, but not sure what the status is. Of course, it could be very useful.
replyFrom Google, 2019,
https://research.google/blog/learning-to-smell-using-deep-le...
Sounds like the obsession of reinventing trains and trees. Surely training a rat is cheaper than a portable real-time NMR device, right?
replyRats are sentient beings. If we have a choice, it’s not ethical to risk their lives to meet our own goals.
replyBefore focusing on rats, who are too light to set off mines and live long pampered lives, I would focus on the 73 million pigs and 87 million cows in factory farms [0].
reply[0]: https://www.sentienceinstitute.org/us-factory-farming-estima...