The blue critters hop, the yellows speed, the greens navigate rough terrain with agility, and the reds are just plain nasty. But the most interesting aspect of BIO toys is their architecture. Flouting the digital conventions of traditional robotics, Los Alamos National Labs scientist Mark Tilden embraces analog.
He builds his bots out of cheap transistors and capacitors, and relies on nonlinear dynamics rather than 1s and 0s and CPU power. With Hasbro's commercial release of the Biologically Inspired Organisms in October, the darting progeny of Tilden's philosophy will be let loose on the world. But be warned: The reactive, unpredictable nature of the bugs makes them seem eerily alive. Yet, unlike the real things, they're not untouchable. Tilden designed the foot-long beasts with removable gears and sensors so they can be easily hacked and reconfigured. As Tilden says, "Blessed be experimenters."
ELECTRIC WORD
Spring Bake
In The Out Door
Wind Instruments
Photosynthesis
Mockroach
Inside Track
