Mini-computers around the robot's body gather sensory information. Grasshoppers hop and fly. When powerful rear-leg muscles launch it skyward, the grasshopper can unfurl its two pairs of wings and fly away. Instead of a brain and nervous system, a grasshopper has bundles of nerves called ganglia throughout its body. The robot giant squid enters a structure resembling a shipwreck on the ocean floor.
Visitors can hear ambient underwater sounds.
The robot uses a multidirectional nozzle to jet-propel itself and to expel water, waste, ink, and eggs. The giant squid sucks water into its body and then shoots the water out a tube under its head to propel itself for a high-speed swim. The giant squid is a cousin of common backyard slugs. The same body parts that make a harmless slug make this fast-swimming hunter. The Robot Zoo is FREE to visitors to the State Fair of Texas, September 29 - October 22, 2000.