Make:

The headline is a little misleading, a robot didn't actually hunt a cat... just looked for one GKD writes -

For many years now I have searched for practical uses for my robots, including my latest research project into behavioral control software that simulates a pet's behavior . Most of my previous projects have been solutions looking for problems until last Thursday evening when my wife and I discovered a visitor in our house. We were first alerted to the presence when I discovered a little (well not that little) cat suprize by the door. I thought this was strange because we do not have any pets. We looked through the house and could not see any signs of a cat, or what ever it was, and hoped that it was gone by now.

The next morning Amanda put a small dish of assorted food on the floor of the kitchen as a precautionary measure to see if it really was gone. At lunch time we came home to find that the creature liked the tuna, not hot-dogs. We opened all the doors to the outside and searched the house to find a black cat hiding by the hot air vent in the living room. Though we chased the cat into another room where the door was open to the outside, we never saw it actually leave. Needless to say, we were still a little suspicious. With lunch hour running out we closed all the doors and put another dish of food out to see if anything would bite. What has this to do with robots? I will get to that soon enough.

In the evening when we returned home, we knew to look for the cat by the heating vent. We opened all the doors again and the chase was on! At least for the first 20 seconds or so. When the cat ran to the kitchen, I could not believe my eyes when I saw it disappear into a small hole about 4" x 5" in the kickboard of the kitchen counter. Looking through the hole I found a small crawl space just big enough for the cat. There was no way we could reach in and grab it, the hole just was not big enough for an arm and cat to fit through. We agreed more bait would get it out. Not wanting to drill a big hole in the cupboard we needed a trap that would close off the hole when the cat came out. For a computer engineer it did not take long to think of a solution involving a robot.