MIT :: Dino :: Dinosaur Robots For Sale
Matthew Herper, Forbes.com, 05.23.01, 3:00 PM ET

NEW YORK - Clink. Clink. Troody, a small robot dinosaur, walks across Peter Dilworth's desk, jangling as if she has loose change in her pockets. Dilworth, Troody's creator, hopes the pigeon-sized robot will be mother to a whole race of dinosaur-like robots that will walk around museums, entertaining and educating children.

He is in the process of starting a company, Dinosaur Robots, to commercialize such robots. Dilworth built Troody on a shoestring at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, spending about $500,000 over five years to create a two-legged robot that can put one foot in front of the other in a lifelike way. Companies like Sony and Honda have thrown hundreds of millions of dollars at that same holy grail.

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