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Children in Qatar can explore the biomechanics of complex animal robots to discover how real animals work at a touring exhibition "The Robot Zoo" to be held here from February 7 to 15.

The 5,000 square-feet exhibition reveals the magic of nature. Eight robot animals and more than a dozen hands-on activities illustrate fascinating real-life characteristics, such as how a chameleon changes colors, a giant squid propels itself and a fly walks on the ceiling.

The larger-than-life-size animated robots include a chameleon, a rhinoceros, a giant squid with 18-foot tentacles and a platypus. Also featured are a house fly with a 10-foot wingspread, a grasshopper, a bat and a giraffe whose head and neck alone stretch nine feet tall.

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. Using real-time color image processing at three computer workstations, visitors can "paint" digital patterns which appear almost instantaneously on a seven-foot-by-11-foot rear-projection screen behind the robot chameleon.

Video monitors covering the robot quickly display the same patterns, effectively blending the chameleon with its background. Other 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. The exhibition, produced by the Texas-based Evergreen Exhibitions is based on the book "The Robot Zoo" which was conceived, edited and designed by Marshall Editions of London.
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