Robot Sheep Shearing

This robot clipped around 400 fleeces between 1985 and 1993 at the University of Western Australia. The sheep was in its natural state, with no drugs or artificial means of keeping it still. In over 1000 tests with this robot, only a few sheep were seriously injured, and there were many times fewer skin cuts than human shearers inflict because the robot could react in thousandths of a second. This was research sponsored by Australian wool growers and the government. See ~00006605/