Officially, Mark Tilden is a robotics physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, but he is principally interested in what he calls biomorphic robots. They are made from transistors, motors, sensors, and anything else he cares to throw in, with many parts salvaged from cast-off cameras and video-cassette recorders. He endows his machines with what he calls "nervous networks," which function much like the neurons in animal nervous systems.
Unlike conventional robots, which are usually based on digital technology, Tilden's nervous-network machines are based on analog technology using continuously changing waves, rather than ones and zeroes. Instead of writing elaborate programs to make his robots walk, he designs circuits that automatically seek a desired state. Motion is usually the result.
