Snail Robot by Versal Cross
High-School Robots Learn the “Three Rs”
By Jim Collison – Popular Mechanics July 1955
There is also a little robot. Versal Cross, 17, the senior student who built it calls it a Doodlebug or Snail. The Snail follows a beam of light and, having lost it, searches until it finds the light again. It is not controlled by radio or by other remote controls. Assembled, it looks like a giant bug with feelers guiding it as it searches for the beam of light.
Foley [Minn.] science instructor Alfred A. Lease says this of his students [high-school juniors]: “Their accomplishments would make some college graduates look on with envy.”
In every corner of this Foley classroom are student-built machines that perform a variety of tasks. Each student must work on one project a year.
.jpg)
"The Snail, a mobile wire-caged machine, follows a light beam. Inventor Versal Cross holds flashlight."