Most of the squirrels on our college campus were massive, hyper-intelligent little beasts that were best dealt with by vigilant avoidance, but it looks like Hampshire College professor Sarah Partan is taking the opposite approach, using a
robotic squirrel named "Rocky" to interact with the local rodents up close. Rocky is controlled wirelessly from a laptop, and can realistically move his tail and body to communicate with other squirrels, as well as play pre-recorded squirrel noises from built-in speakers. The goal is to study how animals communicate, and it looks like Rocky's doing a good job -- the local squirrels seem to respond to him just like any other. That's pretty impressive for a bot (or pretty weak for the squirrels, depending on your point of view), but we're just waiting for Partan and her team to discover the shocking truth: that the squirrels are really studying them.
posted May 3rd 2008 8:56AM
AWESOME!!! :D
and nobody's mentioned the bloody Squirrel Uprising yet?
are you confusing mice with squirrels? i never found it necessary to vigilantly avoid squirrels ...
Disney's new expensive toy too perhaps?
Now all the need is a robotic moose!
No-one's spotted the missing word yet? C'mon Engadget, who proof reads this stuff?
Well it was pretty easy being that it would have been the 5th word in: on.
more like, "steel" nuts HAhahahahaha
hahahahaha, that's exactly what i was going to say. so i think i deserve to be highly ranked.
helps the self-esteem, you know? wouldn't want any.... accidents.
;]
It's so wet and rainy here in New York, I saw a squirrel dry his nuts.
*rimshot*
"I'm just a squirrel trying to get a nut to move your butt"
nooooo the squirrels are bowing down to their robot overlords already,
first the rodents, then the birds, THEN THE PRIMATES
oh dang.... there goes our chances of reviving the red squirrels again...
Hey, you gotta waste taxpayers' money SOMEhow.
yeah, when WILL this constant quest for knowledge end?
I for one welcome our new robotic squirrel overlords.
haha that's hilarious
They , too, will evolve.
Hampshire college, figures. that place is full of chock full o Nutjobs and hippies.
Actually...the squirrels already have robots infiltrating us. They are way ahead of us. Shane Selewach
Is a robotic moose named Bullwinkle also in the works?
wow thats ...wow.....OK ALL YOU GUYS OUT THERE GO AND PUT YOUR CUPS ON AND WHATH OUT FOR THE SQRILL HE'S BEN SAID TO RIP EM RIGHT OFF!!!
Did you have a seizure while typing that?
WATH OUT FOR THE SQRILL!
"Rocky"...that's original.
I use my real cat to communicate with squirrels all the time.
"the local squirrels seem to respond to him just like any other."
User. Account
why can't my school do this? this is freaking awesome and a dream job. lucky bastards...
Wot no video?