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From: hagerman@ece.cmu.edu (John Hagerman)
Subject: Re: Run Rabbit...Run. Cat detectors.
Message-ID: <HAGERMAN.93Feb23135749@rx7.ece.cmu.edu>
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Organization: Carnegie Mellon University
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Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1993 18:57:49 GMT
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esrbu@csv.warwick.ac.uk (Mr I M Hunter) writes:

> Dear all,
>         I wish to build a small (tennis ball sized) mobile robot that has
> a self-preservation instinct when faced with my cat. That is, it runs away
> from it. The thing is how does it detect where the cat is and whether it
> has pounced upon my poor, doomed robot.

Detection is one problem; what about acceleration?  Here's an idea;
when the robot is quiescent it winds up a coil spring on one wheel.
The wheel rotates freely, but when the spring catch is released it
makes the mouse scurry away!  I don't think the direction matters
much, and you don't need much distance to keep a cat interested.  A
couple of other (slippery?) wheels can be motorized for other stuff,
like enticing the cat or getting away from a wall or whatever.

- John
--
hagerman@ece.cmu.edu
