Wind-up Bird(s): Robotic Woodpeckers

The Wind-up Birds project explores the reaction nature will have on robotics. The “birds” are mechanical woodpeckers that are controlled via a micro-controller. There is a lot more information, and pictures, on the website.

How will nature treat them, with [hostillity] or acceptance? How will the wind-up birds adapt to heat/cold wet/dry conditions? Will small insects creep inside the circuitry creating possible short circuits, beetles eat the wood, squirrels use the wood slit as nut storage (or the roof as a slide?), birds use it as a shelter, etc.? Will they be treated as foreign objects or accepted into the local eco-system?

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