This has sure been around.... :) treat it as a meme I guess, Alan.


Cats vs. Robots

I came across this in the latest issue of New Scientist, and decided that it warranted wide distribution.

Mark Tilden has proof that cats are the second most intelligent life form on the planet [second to whom? -- dmj]. A "robot biologist", Tilden has created a number of small robots that roam around his apartment cleaning it as they go. The latest versions have emerged after many earlier, unsuccessful attempts.

Tilden found the behavior of one of his earliest robots completely baffling. Every time he came home from work it would be going round and round in circles in the center of his lounge carpet. He ran some diagnostic tests, rebuilt it and tried everything to correct the fault, but the same thing kept happening.

The answer was revealed one weekend when Tilden was at home. The robot was going about its task of cleaning the carpet when Tilden's cat walked in from the bedroom. The cat sat down in front of the robot, which detected it, stopped moving, turned through 90 degrees and tried moving off again. The cat got up and sat in front of it again. The process was repeated twice more until the robot became convinced that it was surrounded by furniture. So it simply revolved on the spot.

Now Tilden builds his robots to move so slowly that they do not awaken the interest of his cat.

Quoted from the "Feedback" column of New Scientist 150(2031):100, 25 May 1996.


HTML: L. Allison / 1996