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.

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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