Robo-Penguin Welcomed With Open Wings

Photo credit: www.mirror.co.uk

How do you infiltrate a colony of skittish penguins?

Go undercover of course!

And that’s exactly what a group of researches have done to study Antarctic penguins.

They built a rover complete with scanning equipment to gather data on the birds. Then, they dressed the machine up as a penguin chick to avoid over stressing or scaring the colony.

On average a penguins’ heart rate increases by 35 beats per minute when approached by humans, indicating high stress levels. Removing this stress allows researches to more accurately gather information on penguin populations.

It took five robot variations before the penguins accepted the rover, but once they were comfortable they took the little robo-chick under their wings!

Source: www.mirror.co.uk