Well, the Zuckerman's and the rest of the county were right. Charlotte's Web was a miracle. But we, being amatuer physicists and computer scientists, insist upon a believable physical explanation for our spider's talents. According to Charlotte...
DESIGN
Instead of spinnerets, we used LEGOs and a mini-computer, known as the Handy Board. She moves on four wheels, two of which are powered by one small motor apiece. The motors have very little torque, so they are geared down by a ratio of 1:243- this means that Charlotte is slow, but strong. Her "spinerette" consistes of a pen attached to a smaller motor- this motor had sufficient torque, so it was not geared down at all. Her mouth is controlled by the same type of motor as her spinerette: the motor pulls up two strings attached to either side of her jaw. When her jaw hits a switch glued to the roof of her mouth, the motor switched direction, making her mouth open.
PROGRAMMING
And instead of know-how, we had computer programmimng. Charlotte's actions were programmed into the Handy Board using Handylogo, a specialized computer language. She can draw a web using a program known as "spin-web2," and can peruse her web hungrily searching for bugs using a program known as "eat-mode." To see the code for these behaviors, click here.