Mission Bay Landfill Dog Release March 4-5, 2005.


A dozen UCSD art students, San Diego Councilwoman Donna Frye, Fox News, the San Diego Department of Environmental Health, the Electric Flyes Club and others all gathered in the Mission Bay Landfill site in San Diego for this feral dog release on March 4-5. The dogs were sent to investigate possible Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) emissions from the site due to its 50+ year history as an industrial waste dumping ground used by military industry in the immediate vicinity.

- Current: For Full Details See - Mission Bay Release Page

UCSD - Electonic Technologies: Feral Robotics: bring robots out of fiction - ICAM 147B W 2005.


The goal of this course is to adapt and release a feral robotic dog (or other companion robot) on a contaminated site nearby. The feral robot will ‘sniff out the contaminants on the site and you will communicate the site conditions to interested community members.

- Current: For Full Details See - Feral Robots 147B Wiki Page

CORNELL - Feral Robotic Dog Team - CEE 309/492: Engineers for a Sustainable World F 2004 - S 2005.


Working to equip a toy robot with chemical sensors focused on the harmful chemical Trichloroethylene (TCE), high levels of which have been found near several Ithaca homes. Dogs are being reengineered, and will be released to scout the sites.

- Current: For Full Details See - CEE 309/492 Website.

Yale University - Course Number_MechEng 386

Students in the Mechanical Engineering department are currently developing new breeds of Feral Robotic Dogs. These new hacks include the use of both the Jimmy Neutron Godard available via KB Stores Online as well as the I-Cybie from Tyco.

Over the course of this class students will also be dedicated to refining new and more complex behaviors between each dog and its environment.

- Current: For Full Details See - Team Research Groups

Pratt Institute - Obot - Open Electromechanics and Art

The Feral Robotics Workshop was invited to expand its ideas into a course syllabus at Pratt Institute. Students began with an introduction to electronic and mechanical systems and as well as a history of the Open Source movement. The class will culminate in a release in the Brooklyn area.

- Current: For Full Details See - Course Material

Bronx River Art Center -

A dozen students between the ages of 12 and 15, participated in a lab environment where they confronted the immediate pollutants in their surroundings using the Feral Dog Project. Manufacturing Gas Plants were used between the 1800's and mid 1900's before the development of natural gas systems, to convert coal and oil into gas for heating, lighting and cooking. Byproducts of this early production process included contaminants such as tar and purified wastes. Official studies of the site began in early June and the field work was completed in August of 2002. The specific objectives of the study were to determine the nature and the extent of contamination present at the site.


- Archive: For Full Details See - Bronx NY /Site Index

Florida Film Festival - Sponsor WebLab.org

Fourteen students gathered at the Florida Film Festival headquarters to adapt a pack of commercially available toy robotic dog -- to upgrade the raison d'etre of their robots. They equipped the toys with a new nose (environment toxin sensor), and a new brain (microprocessor), and have mechanically upgraded (hotroded) the dogs so they can now navigate any outdoor terrain. The new brain changes the dogs behavior : each is now programmed to follow concentration gradients of the material (VOCs*) they are sensing i.e. they appear to be sniffing out a toxic trail.

- Archive: For Full Details See - Orlando FL /Site Index

Original Yale Pilot Course -

Students from multiple departments at Yale University were assembled to initial research and development of the dog project. Tasks completed included the production of the first wave of Open Source Tutorials. Students also laid the groundwork for a number of subsequent releases.

- Archive: For Full Details See - Course Material

Future Site - Snake River, Idaho -

INEEL, or Idaho Engineering and Environmental Laboratory was a Navy Bombing Range in World War II. In 1949 the first reactor was constructed at the site. In 1953, the first nuclear waste was stored there. Eventually housed 52 total reactors, more in one place than anywhere else in the world. INEEL has had 27 meltdowns, 16 of which were totally unintentional. In 1961 the first fatal nuclear accident sent a nuclear cloud into the Snake River Valley for thirty days. Three workers were killed and were so heavily contaminated with radioactivity that they had to be buried in sealed, lead-lined coffins.