Thigmo is a small autonomous robot car contained in a
Hamster
Ball which allows him (...always anthropomorphizing...)
to roll around a space with impunity. The robot has two bits of
input information:
- A power switch
- An orientation sensor (mercury switch)
Using this input it can do one of three things:
- Not move (the OFF position of the power switch)
- Move forward
- Move backward
Where
forward and
backward are nominal directions
depending on which side of the robot is up at the particular moment in
time. This allows Thigmo to roll around until he hits something which causes
the car to flip over and change the direction of travel. In practice the
geometry of the system causes him to prefer to follow walls or other
obstacles -- thus the name, from:
Thigmotaxis
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