TRAVELING EXHIBIT REVEALS BIOMECHANICS OF ROBOT ANIMALS
The 2,500-square-foot exhibit, based on the original 5,000-square-foot exhibit, reveals the magic of nature as a master engineer. Three robot animals and seven hands-on activities illustrate fascinating real-life characteristics, such as how a chameleon changes colors and a fly walks on the ceiling.
The larger-than-life-size animated robots include a chameleon and a platypus. Also featured is a house fly with a 3-foot wingspread.
Machinery in the robot animals simulates the body parts of their real-life counterparts. In the robot animals, muscles become pistons, intestines become filtering pipes and brains become computers.
Sensory activities include "Swat the Fly," a test of the visitor's reaction time (one-twelfth as fast as a house fly's), and "Sticky Feet," where visitors wearing special hand and knee pads can try to stick like flies to a sloped surface. Triggering the "Tongue Gun" demonstrates how a real chameleon shoots out its long, sticky-tipped tongue to reel in a meal.
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