Robotic tuatara successfully generates research data

Just over two months ago Robo-Ollie, a robotic tuatara, was loosed into the wilderness on Stephens Island in New Zealand, and now that its creator and her colleagues have had a chance to monitor it in the wild, it looks like Mr. Oliver is performing toppingly. Sporting a nickel-cadmium battery, servos, and a rubberized skin suit, the creature has spent its time bobbing its head, gaping its mouth, and providing researchers with some intriguing data about aggressiveness and mating tendencies within the species. Unfortunately, the current iteration is essentially paralyzed from the neck back, and it took its masters a tick to understand how the head bobbing gig was "sending mixed signals" as it showcased feminine tendencies -- but now that he's regained his masculinity, it's on to figuring out what olfaction and infidelity have to do with tuatara life.

[Via Digg]

[Crayola @ Jun 9th 2007 11:17AM]

Didn't know Sandra Bullock is into lizard research as well... Well, at least she has a life after Speed 2...

[LukeA @ Jun 9th 2007 11:19AM]

Ni-Cd? What is this, 1993?

[aeo @ Jun 9th 2007 11:27AM]

I think it's great that they're giving paraplegic robot lizards an opportunity to contribute and prove their value to our society.

[Chuckles McGee @ Jun 9th 2007 12:27PM]

"...the creature has spent its time bobbing its head, gaping its mouth, and providing researchers with some intriguing data about aggressiveness and mating tendencies within the species."

Ah yes, see, Paris Hilton does contribute to society!

[Random @ Jun 9th 2007 12:33PM]

Hey guys,

Just to clear some things up..

Tuatara is a reptile but not a lizard.

It is the last remaining member of the ancient group of reptiles, Sphenodontia.




"People used to think that the tuatara was a lizard. But in 1867, Dr Albert Gunther, the curator at the British Museum in London examined a bottled tuatara specimen and said ‘It’s not a lizard!’ Gunther linked it to the group of reptiles called Rhynchocephalia, thought to be long extinct land-based reptiles (Rhynchocephalia is now known as Sphenodontia).

In 1989 Dr Charles Daugherty, a professor at Victoria University in Wellington, discovered that there were two species of tuatara, Sphenodon punctatus and Sphenodon guntheri."

[boomhauer @ Jun 9th 2007 2:03PM]

why you callin that lizard that sphewhatchamdoodi?

[Dim? @ Jun 9th 2007 4:33PM]

Because it has 3 eyes and live to 100+

[Brian @ Jun 9th 2007 6:20PM]

enough about the robot... any info on the creator?

[Captain Kirk @ Jun 9th 2007 7:12PM]

WHO! WHO is the Creator!? Is VGER the Creator?

[Nimajus Bagdonavicius @ Jun 11th 2007 5:07AM]

If this was digg, the title of this story would've been "Gay Robotic iguana gets raped in the wild"

[Snorbalp @ Jun 11th 2007 9:38AM]

As a result of tampering with the Tuataran mating ritual of Pon Farr, you have just caused the destruction of one model XOJ-37 Nuclear Powered Pan-Sexual Roto-Plooker, Ms. Bullock.... And you're gonna have to pay for it...