The Physics of auto-transforming robot toys: A laboratory investigation for high school or College Physics classes

An unlikely but rich source of inspiring physics examples can be found through the study of basic mechanical toys; simple toys often demonstrate a wealth of physical concepts that contribute to their successful operation and entertaining motions. These include such classic examples as the drinking bird, Euler's disk, balancing bird and many more. Here I present a practical laboratory teaching activity designed to be educational and enjoyable for students at the high school to undergraduate level which employs 1980's vintage auto-transforming robot toys. These simple motorized robots demonstrate a great deal of different concepts in mechanics as they race forward and flip open during their rapid but simple transformation. This allows students the opportunity to employ the apparatus of a basic physics laboratory to not only observe and measure the toy's motion, but to join the author in answering a question posed almost forty years prior. How does a small switch with no electronics or significant physical weight control the motion of a motorized automatically transforming robot?