T rex is back

by Lisa Cardy

�

��Press Association

�

The robot will form the centre piece of the museum's Year of the Predator events. It's a terrifying three-quarters the size of the real thing, four metres high and seven metres long.

�

Because of advances in computer-controlled pneumatic, servo-assisted technology terrifyingly convincing movements have been possible. When the model dinosaur senses nearby movement, it starts thrashing its tail, curling its lips and sweeping its gapping jaws down to head height of the nearest bystanders. But it doesn't bite, yet.

�

Dr Angela Milner, a dinosaur expert at the museum, suggested that with future technological developments in five years time it might be possible to create a robot that actually walks around the galleries.

�

The creature is controlled by a central computer and complex electronics drive hundreds of air pistons under the its rubber skin allowing fluid large movements and subtle smaller movements.

�

The robot will feature in a pit savaging prey. Its movements can be varied and it can be programmed with an eating cycle and matching noises. And the reality doesn't stop there; the gallery has the aroma of a stinking swamp thought to replicate the smells from the Cretaceous era. Although this particular smell wasn't the museums first choice. They had hoped to waft T rex breath around the gallery. But the smell of rotting flesh, which would have got trapped in the real things' serrated teeth, was thought to be so awful that people would be put off.

�

The technology has been developed with Japanese animatronics company Kokoro and a robotic T rex can be yours for �220,000. Or you could settle for a bottle of Maastrichtian Miasma, the name given to the swamp smell. Maastrichtian from the Cretaceous chalk layers uncovered on the outskirts of the Dutch town of Maastricht, and Miasma meaning noxious emanation.

�

So, if you're feeling brave, the exhibition opens on 17th February 2001. For more information visit The Natural History Museum web site.