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Call for Participation: Robotics, Mechatronics and Animatronics in the
Creative and Entertainment Industries and the Arts aka the Creative
Robotics Symposium
http://crrn.open.ac.uk/aisb
13 April 2005
University of Hertfordshire, College Lane Campus, Hatfield, England
Main Convention Website: http://aisb2005.feis.herts.ac.uk
BACKGROUND
The Robotics, Mechatronics and Animatronics in the Creative and
Entertainment Industries and the Arts Symposium aka the Creative Robotics
Symposium is the first research related event to be supported by the EPSRC
funded Creative Robotics Research Network (CRRN).
Established in September, 2004, the CRRN is currently building a network
of members from academia, industry and the arts who share a passion in the
creative potential of robotics related technologies. The network’s launch
event, held jointly with the RoboFesta-UK Educational Robotics Network
Fourth Annual Meeting at the Open University, in November, 2004, provided
a glimpse into the world of Creative Robotics that will be developed more
fully in this Symposium.
For more information, visit www.creativerobotics.org.uk
PRESENTATIONS
A Recent History?
SAM, The Senster and the Bandit: Early Cybernetic Sculptures by Edward
Ihnatowicz
Aleksander Zivanovic, Imperial College London
Edward Ihnatowicz (1926-1988) built one of the world’s first
computer-controlled robotic sculptures, the Senster, in 1968-70. This
paper describes that ground-breaking work and examines some of his other
cybernetic sculptures, SAM and The Bandit. It also describes how his ideas
developed.
Reaching Out…
The Development and Effectiveness of the CYCLER Educational Presentation
Robots
Martin Smith & David Buckley
This paper describes the design, development and operation of three
state-of-the-art presentation robots being used to present an educational
programme to schoolchildren in the UK. The three identical robots were
designed to simulate intelligent behaviour in order to appeal to primary
and special needs pupils and to grab and hold their attention. The robots
present the educational material autonomously except that question and
answer sessions are triggered by a handler to synchronise the interaction
with the children. The paper describes the functional, behavioural and
appearance aspects of the design and includes a summary of the
effectiveness of ten years use in thousands of schools with hundreds of
thousands of children.
Robot thought – A Dialogue Event for Family Audiences
Karen Bultitude, Ben Johnson, Frank Burnet, Dylan Evans & Alan Winfield
An original and highly successful public engagement event format has been
devised for encouraging family audiences to consider and convey their
opinions on issues associated with robotics technology. The format uses
the traditional approach of an entertaining science “show” to appeal to
young and old alike. The show is broken down into a series of short
dramatic vignettes to highlight important practical, personal and social
issues relating to robotics. During each vignette a particular concept or
issue is presented to the audience, who are then encouraged to express
their opinions and concerns about issues, and debate the implications of
robotics on future society. This paper describes the key features of the
event format, with particular reference to the successful pilot
performances
held during October 2004.
A Lifelike Robotic Policeman with Realistic Motion and Speech
Martin Smith & David Buckley
This paper describes a completed project to produce a lifelike robotic
figure of a policeman. The semi-autonomous robotic figure was designed to
demonstrate to politicians, the news media and public an issue that the
project’s sponsors wanted to be more widely recognised. The figure appears
to answer questions in an intelligent and humorous way using engaging body
language with movements that emphasise the presented message in a positive
manner. The lifelike apparently intelligent behaviour is achieved using a
randomised series of background body movements and voiced speech that can
be triggered and synchronised from a palm-sized keypad held by an
operator. This paper describes the design requirement, implementation,
method of construction, performance and effectiveness of the figure. The
paper describes how the figure was given a lifelike appearance with
realistic head, eye and lip movements.
Giving it Meaning…
iCat: Experimenting with Animabotics
Albert van Breemen
Recently, a new type of robot user interface has been discussed (Bartneck
and Okada, 2001). This paper argues that a new discipline is needed for
successfully developing these robot user interfaces. This discipline
derives from the fields of animatronics and robotics and is named
‘animabotics’. After explaining this term, our research platform for
studying animabotics is described. The platform consists of a robot
character called ‘iCat’ and a software framework called ‘Open Platform for
Personal Robots’, or just OPPR. Two research cases are described that are
based on our research platform,
Real Tech Support for Robotics
Marc Böhlen
This paper proposes an alternate reading of the Creative Robotics agenda.
It attempts to formulate a rational for robotics research in the arts that
hold promise for delivering contributions to the broader question of
coexistence between advanced information processing machines and human
beings.
Narrative in Robotics Scenarios for Art Works
Daniel Bisig & Adrianne Wortzel
This paper discusses narrative as a sub-field of creative robotics. We
make the premise that every robotic system (regardless of the original
intention of it's engineers) is layered with context and meaning both in
itself, and in its process of coming into being. Through artistic
observation and interpretation these layers can be made tangible as
scenarios for art works manifested in art forms such as literature, film,
installation and live performance. As a case study, we present an ongoing
project entitled "archipelago.ch" which works solely with scientific
robotic platforms developed at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of
the Department of Informatics, University of Zurich, Switzerland (the
“AILab”). By working with existing robotic systems originated in the AILab
we move away from sculptural or choreographic concerns to develop a
dramatic scenario, which is true to capabilities of a particular robot or
robotic system. We argue that such scenarios are both an effective form of
art expression and that they also have the potential to re-enter and
inform the science from which they emerge.
State of the Art…
‘Stigmergy’: Biologically-Inspired Robotics Art
Mike Blow
This paper presents a robotic art installation that was exhibited at the
Big Blip ’04 event in Brighton on the 10th and 11th September 2004. The
installation modelled the foraging behaviour of ants using
swarm-intelligence techniques, and created glowing patterns on an arena
floor through stigmergy and the actions and interactions of two robots.
The motivation, biological foundation and technical aspects of the project
are presented, along with a discussion of audience reactions and further
work.
Osama Seeker
Darren Southee, Julie Henry & Giles Perry
Osama Seeker is an Art installation exhibited initially at ‘Interventions’
in Southampton. Julie Henry (Anthony Wilkinson Gallery) and Giles Perry
(then Goldsmiths College) were the two contemporary artists involved. This
paper discusses the design and realisation processes from the perspective
of the collaborative technologist and designer, Darren Southee (Brunel
University) and the artists. It is essentially a reflective ‘walk-through’
the project detailing some technological aspects contextualised by an
opening statement from the artists. A closing statement reflects upon the
final outcome and seeks to put the presented installation in context.
There Does Not, in Fact, Appear to be a Plan: A Collaborative Experiment
in Creative Robotics
Jon Bird, Bill Bigge, Mike Blow, Richard Brown, Ed Clive, Rowena Easton,
Tom Grimsey, Garvin Haslett & Andy Webster
This paper describes a recent collaborative creative robotics project
which developed two exhibits (There does not, in fact, appear to be a plan
and Clutch) that were shown at the Big Blip 04. It gives an overview of
two key aspects of the project: the design of the robot technology; and
the collaborative process between the participating artists and
scientists. We highlight some of the key lessons learnt and outline some
possible future developments of the project.
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The Creative Robotics Research Network is an open network extablished to
foster co-operation between academia, industry and the arts in the
emerging area of creative robotics.
For more information, visit www.creativerobotics.org.uk
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WICKED ROBOT EVENTS FOR SCIENCE WEEK
http://www.wickedrobots.co.uk/
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Tony Hirst
mailto:[log in to unmask]
Dept. of ICT, Faculty of Technology
Open University, Walton Hall,
Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK
Tel: +44 (0)19086 52789, m./SMS 07709 766223
Fax my email: 0871 8729323
http://robofesta.open.ac.uk/tony
http://www.robofesta-uk.org
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