Last week, I started working with the Roomba platform: the hovering robot.
As a first exploration, I created several tags (spiral, random, sweep, wall-follow, fast, slow), and matching behaviours.
The tags can also be combined: spiral + fast = a fast spiral. Wall-follow + wall-follow + spiral = a wall-following robot that moves in small spirals.

iRobot tags – actDresses exploration – robtieben.com/stockholm from Rob Tieben on Vimeo.

actDresses, end-user programming, exploration, roomba Hide

The last weeks involved exploration again, this time focused on direct manipulation and agents. Discussions, prototypes, and of course iterations created the base of this exploration.

Goal of exploration:
- create WYSIWYG functionality: appearance = behaviour
- create complex/abstract behaviour (interaction, emergence, if-then, etc)
* explore & analyse possibilities
* explore user interaction & understanding

Direct manipulation
* program 1 object
* wearables -> behaviour = complexity

Lemmings behaviour
* objects interact via simple command objects
* wearables + interaction = complexity

Manipulating the agent
* program different objects to activate each other
* “The Incredible Machine”: creating complex system = complexity

Infect the agents
* program different objects to change each other
* system, cause and effect = complexity

Follow up directions
* direct manipulation & users => focus on user userstanding & robot understanding
combine dresses, what happens?
user learns by doing, robot also learns?

* direct manipulative interaction => focus on manipulating interaction
user (unconscious?) designs a complex system
lemmings/TIM principle

* dress changes behaviour <-> behaviour changes dress
concrete vs abstract
changeable dress vs behaviour IS the dress

* shift from ‘understanding inner workings’ to ‘understanding perceivable behaviour’
behaviour ‘behaves’, user changes something, behaviour changes
user forms mental model, does not have to be correct -> understanding should ‘match’

4d, actDresses, direct manipulation, exploration, glowbots, Prototypes Hide

In order to get a grasp on actDresses, robots, intelligence, and everything surrounding it, I started with some quick exploration.

My goal was to explore how you can influence the behaviour of a robot, by using physical and direct adaptations to the appearance of the robot. After locking myself in the workshop for half a day, a series of small little ‘robots’ with accessories had emerged. Robots with blindfolds, movable ear-sensors and attachable sails are just a few of the examples.

robots_explo1.001

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 19

After analysing and discussing these first explorations, I created the following ’structure’:

Direct manipulation

- altering sensors -> alter ‘handicap‘ of robot -> alter behaviour
- altering actuators -> alter ‘degrees of freedom‘ of robot -> alter behaviour
- altering configuration -> alter ‘capabilities‘ of robot -> alter behaviour
If we look at the examples, it is clear that direct manipulation is key here: one physically directly alters the robot in order to physically directly alter the behaviour.

direct manipulation of the robot = direct manipulation of the behaviour
robot = behaviour
signifier = robot
signified = behaviour
signifier = signified

signifier = signified = robot = behaviour

Influencing behaviour
There are four levels of influencing behaviour, when telling a robot what to do
- guiding: giving commands at every step
- cooking: giving a list of directions that the robot has to follow
- aiming: giving an aim that the robot has to fulfill
- stating: giving a certain behavioral state for the robot

Publicity
Commands or programming that is given to a robot, can be visualised on three levels
- public
- semi-public
- private

actDresses, actuators, appearance, behaviour, direct manipulation, exploration, influencing, sensors Hide