I've been working with Prof. Sarah Partan to make robotic animal models in the animal behavior robotics lab at Hampshire College.

Robotic animal models can be used to mimic the behavior of animals in order to study their responses. Their responses can be analyzed to give some indication of what a particular behavior means. Compared to just visual or audio playback studies, robotic playback studies are useful because they enable experimenters to have more control of the stimulus.

In the summer of 2017, I fixed the old robotic squirrel used at the animal behavior robotics lab and started development of a new one. The new squirrel project turned into more than just a squirrel- I've made it configurable for any type of robotic playback study. It is a Configurable Animatronic System for Playback Experiment Research (CASPER).