Ideas

Here are some ideas for experimenting with BEAM robots & BIO-Bugs.

Right now, I'm focusing on more or less free-form building of bots and then on playing with the products, rather than over-theorizing up front. So far I've learned a lot just from seeing how these things are made, participating in their construction, and watching their behaviour.

Engineering Experimentation:

• Improve Bug mobility by: improving claws; adding stilts.
• Hinder Bug mobility by: e.g., by removing a leg; can it compensate?
• Can a Palmtop computer's IR port be used to control B.I.O.-Bugs?

Social Experimentation:

• Build a Lego Mindstorms robot that leads, via its Infra-Red port, a tribe of B.I.O. Bugs.
• Mute the Bug's sound [here are instructions for how to do this], cover Bug in fake-fur. Does this make the Bug more socially acceptable to cats?
• Find new ways to attract cat's attention (& interaction). Got ideas? E-mail me at chrismac@ethicsweb.ca.
• Build a BEAM robot with an Infra-Red diode to attract B.I.O.-Bugs.

Bad ideas:

• add a laser pointer. (Bad idea because the laser could probably blind a cat; laser pointers are a technology that needs intelligent guidance.)