Analogue robot spider. Non-digital (analogue) robot spider known as Spyder or VBug 1.0. The robot has eight motors which power its four legs. It was built by the Canadian roboticist Mark Tilden who invented its control device, the nervous net. The robot works by generating a dynamic system of interactions between itself and the outside world. It has no pre-programming, but solves problems by reaching an equilibrium with its environment. Spyder was the first of Tilden's nervous net-controlled analogue robots. It is hoped that robots such as this will eventu- ally be able to carry out land mine clearance. Tilden works at Los Alamos National Lab, USA.