Category Archives: Robotics

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Empathy Swarm, Robot Psychology, Workshop |

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konS workshops with Empathy Swarm Pop-Up version

A successful trip to our lovely konS partners in Slovenia in April and May! Engaging Electrical Engineering and Computer Science students at the University of Maribor to further develop the next iteration of our Empathy Swarm robot tracking system with FPGA, giving workshops and presenting the swarm in Ljublijana and at XCenter in Novo Gorica to art students about digital storytelling and color theory and all that with our quick to install pop-up version of the swarm.

Looking forward to our next stay and future developments that will arise from this!

 

The project is developed within the framework of konS ≡ Platform for Contemporary Investigative Art.

Directional Speakers, Empathy Swarm, Robotics |

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Directional speaker swarm with konS

We are happy to be selected by konS – Platform for Contemporary Investigative Art –  to develop a new version of our project Empathy Swarm and to evolve the concept of distances through directional accoustics!

Looking forward to a fruitfull collaboration with Slowenian specialists from different fields from electronics design to choreography!

 

The project is developed within the framework of konS ≡ Platform for Contemporary Investigative Art.

The project is supported by Stipendienprogramm NRW für Künstler*innen.

Empathy Swarm, Performative Installation, Robot Psychology |

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Empathy Swarm @ iArt / HEK – Interact with the swarm at Oslo night Basel – 26th September 2020

Empathy Swarm as a performative installation. Come and interact with the swarm this Saturday during OSLO NIGHT Basel

The little creatures are curious to meet you and to inhabit a fantastic space at iArt !

Thanks to HEK – Haus der Elektronischen Künste for the invatation!

Looking forward to an exiting night ahead!

Saturday ,   26th September, 4 p.m. – 2 a.m
iArt, Freilager-Platz 3, 4142 Münchenstein

Photo credits: Empathy Swarm at WRO 2019 Biennale / HUMAN ASPECT, Wroclaw, Poland, by Natalia Kabanow

Empathy Swarm, Interactive, Online, Robotics |

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Remote Interaction with Empathy Swarm Robots to be memorised in Impakt’s A WORLD WITHOUT US REVISITED

In times of self-isolation and social distancing, unfortunately you can’t meet the robots in physical space, but we found a platform, called “twitch.tv” which is widely used among gamers to view and engage with their online community. This platform enables our robots to perform for you and even – although with a bit more work – to receive your input.

Empathy Swarm Remote Memory is a vessel for your memory in a possible ‘World without us’ and is part of Impakt’s online exhibition ‘A WORLD WITHOUT US REVISITED’ .

The next interactive live streams of Empathy Swarm Remote Memory on twitch.tv will be on:

Friday         28th August, 6 – 9 p.m.  and

Saturday    29th August, 6 – 9 p.m.

 

Empathy Swarm, Event, Robotics, Talk |

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Robotics and technology festival with Empathy Swarm

Shortly after the opening of Empathy Swarm we and our robots are part of ROBOTRONICA !

Showcasing some of the world’s latest advancements in robotics and technology, Robotronica is a celebration of innovation and an opportunity to glimpse the possibilities of the future.

Join us on Sunday 18 August for an artist talk and showcase of the swarm!

QUT Art Museum, 11AM – 12PM

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Empathy Swarm, Exhibition, Performance, Robot Psychology |

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Empathy Swarm exploring the Human Aspect at Grotowski Institute, WRO Biennale 2019

Thanks WRO for the fantastic opening week of the HUMAN ASPECT, Media Art Biennale WRO 2019 .

In the format of a performative installation visitors could spend intimate moments with the swarm.

Through the setting in a completely dark space humans got soaked into the swirling light pool of robotic creatures. Taking off their shoes and being very careful visitors made first contact with this new species, that shares motion and behaviors, positions in space and a changing need for closeness and distance as a mutual language. Sometimes scared to be run over by a storm of giant humans, sometimes angry about this lack of space, but most often friendly, playful and totally curious about the humans.

Interacting, meditating, playing rough and dancing smoothly –  we received a lot of great feedback about the man-machine bonding time of the people of Wroclaw and our Empathy Swarm. We got especially touched by a young boy who came repeatedly, feeling responsible for the robots and talking about nothing else to his mom until they came back.

It was great to explore and experiment at Grotowski Institute in the center of  Wroclaw’s lovely old town! We enjoyed being part of the multitude of fantastic art, events and performances all over the city, meeting old and new friends and celebrating the 30th anniversary of WRO!

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through
the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

The work is coproduced at Kontejner within the framework of EMAP / EMARE and co-funded by Creative Europe.

 

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Empathy Swarm, Exhibition, Robot Psychology, Talk, Workshop |

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Swarming for 42 hours at Meta Marathon!

Our Empathy Robots and us had a fantastic time at Meta Marathon 2019 – Robotics at NRW-Forum in Düsseldorf last weekend!

Visitors could get into the role of swarm robots to experience being part of an emergent system. In this playful workshop they could learn the rules and parameters that are the foundations of emotional swarm behavior. From this understanding they afterwards could generate and design their own behaviors for the robots in real-time with a custom-made ‘swarm behavior synthesizer’. Thinking about 7 different emotions – happy – sad – neutral – angry – surprised – afraid – disgusted – the behaviors they generated will become part of the data set for the robots emotional responses.

We had a lot of interest, great discussions and nice feedback with and from visitors while exhibiting the Swarm at the IMPAKT zone of the festival.

During all the 42-hours and during our presentation and talk on Sunday with Klaas Werner from medienwerk.nrw and So Kanno we represented the facet of non-humanoid robots of the festivals theme of non-stop living, working, coexisting and cooperating with robots and introduced the idea of movement as means of a mutual language of man and machine based on Fritz Heider and Marianne Simmel’s 1944 Experimental Study of Apparent Behavior.

We want to thank medienwerk.nrw and Klaas Werner for inviting us to talk about the project, its backgrounds, the future of robotic empathy and the role that swarm intelligence plays.

Also thanks to IMPAKT who hosted Empathy Swarm in the IMPAKT Zone at the festival.

 

 

Conference, Empathy Swarm, Event, Panel, Robot Psychology, Robotics, Talk |

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META Marathon 2019 – Presentation & Talk @ NRW-Forum Düsseldorf with medienwerk.nrw

Empathy Swarm meets Sophia and Pepper – almost. We are looking forward to discuss how our non-anthropomorphic robot swarm can produce a feeling of Empathy with some humanoid robots in the audience at the festival Meta Marathon 2019 – Robotics.

42 hours non-stop living and working with robots, coexisting and cooperating, celebrating and drinking, loving and laughing: The META Marathon 2019 from March 15-17, 2019 is dedicated to the topic of robotics and transforms the NRW-Forum into a real laboratory for a whole weekend.

Robot Swarm – Presentation & Talk
(with the Office medienwerk.nrw) / with:
Katrin Hochschuh, Adam Donovan, So Kanno.
Moderation: Klaas Werner

Empathy Swarm, Exhibition, Robot Anatomy, Robot Psychology |

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Wandering through Empathy Swarm at DEVICE ART – Machines are not alone – MSU Zagreb

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through
the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

The work is coproduced at Kontejner within the framework of EMAP / EMARE and co-funded by Creative Europe.

Prototype, Robotics, Workshop |

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DEX workshop in Bangkok – we are coming!

We are looking forward to the first weeks of January and our 9-day DEX -Design EXperimentation – workshop with students from Chulalongkorn University. Under the title “Technology sublime – Preventative medicine for a dystopian future.” architectural students learn about the basics of sensors and electronics to create a kind of activated architecture or a little companion that reacts to environmental stimuli from light to CO2 levels, while thinking about the larger picture and a scenario of how sensed data and a creative mechanism can help the world.

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Electronics, Empathy Swarm, Robot Anatomy |

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Making of: Dissection of the robots

We just wanted to share some more impressions of the scale of this state of the project: 10 robots – that’s a lot of parts!!! And even some of the SMD parts are still in boxes as they would just get lost with a size of half a millimeter x a millimeter!!

 

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

The work is coproduced at Kontejner within the framework of EMAP / EMARE and co-funded by Creative Europe.

 

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Empathy Swarm, Open-Studio, Robotics, Studio |

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Open-Studio swarming with our guests

Some impressions of a busy night, full of emotions, enjoying the robots and explaining the backgrounds to our guests.

 

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

The work is coproduced at Kontejner within the framework of EMAP / EMARE and co-funded by Creative Europe.

 

Empathy Swarm, Prototype, Robotics |

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Silent Running: Robertina and Kryten

With the dear help of professor Zorislav Šojat from Ruđer Bošković Institute, Zagreb, we finally managed to make the robots smooth and silent. 🙂

Learning about interrupt functions to get the update rates of the WiFi communication and the sending of PWM values to the brushless DC motors  independent of each other!

See Robertina and Kryten rolling smoothly on the grey “NASA” floor of the studio, while the prototyping of the next generation is in full work mode
–  10 robots to be seen soon, with new body and battery management!

 

 

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

The work is coproduced at Kontejner within the framework of EMAP / EMARE and co-funded by Creative Europe.

 

Empathy Swarm, Prototype, Residency, Robotics |

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First steps of robot prototype Kryten on the streets of Zagreb!

Just playing on the streets of Zagreb…collecting data with Adam Donovan, Katrin Hochschuh and Tomislav Pokrajčić ;)#emare #robots #emotiondetection #empathyswarm #hochschuhdonovan

Gepostet von KONTEJNER | biro suvremene umjetničke prakse am Dienstag, 26. Juni 2018

 

 

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

The work is coproduced at Kontejner within the framework of EMAP / EMARE and co-funded by Creative Europe.

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Psychophysics Machines, Residency, Robotics, Saturn 3, Sound, Talk |

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Talking about: Robots in Music at Izlog Festival

We started the second day of the festival giving a familiar talk about our work, the last night’s Saturn3 performance and presented the Mega Tautophone that we built during the 2 week residency.

 

          

The work is coproduced at Kontejner within the framework of EMAP / EMARE and co-funded by Creative Europe.

(pictures © Tjaša Kalkan)

 

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Interview, Psychophysics Machines, Robotics, Saturn 3, Software, Sound |

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Interview for Croatian National Radio

This evening we had a nice distraction from working: Katarina Kolega from the Croatian National Radio came to talk with us about our work, robotics in music and more.

She came at the perfect moment to see the first Mega Tautophone ready to go, could smile into the camera and let some emotions synthesize first sound experiments.

We don’t know when the interview will be broadcasted, but sure we will let you know 🙂

 

          

The work is coproduced at Kontejner within the framework of EMAP / EMARE and co-funded by Creative Europe.

 

Empathy Swarm, Prototype, Robot Psychology, Software, Studio |

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Robertinas first steps towards Empahty!

Currently we are working on making our Robot Swarm  perceive humans. The vision sense of our robot is a camera; the robot sees its environment, but that alone is not enough. The robot needs to learn to differentiate a bit more.

Previously we used Python and could already detect emotions, but to be more flexible and have the possibility to have more control, we are porting our coding environment to c++.

With the goal to respond to human emotions the primary goal is to detect faces. In order to teach Robertina to identify a human face, we use the computer vision and machine learning libraries OpenCV and dllib.

And see what she can already perceive: That’s Adam and me and she can identify two heads and amazingly also our so called facial landmarks that play a relevant role in her future ability to actually perceive emotions!

 

Event, Performance, Prototype, Psychophysics Machines, Robot Anatomy, Saturn 3 |

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Saturn3: Performance on 2nd May 2018 at IZLOG SUVRE MENOG ZVUKA – Showroom of Contemporary Sound, Zagreb

Saturn3 meets Empathy Swarm

in collaboration with KONEJNER, Zagreb

As kick-off of our EMAP/EMARE Residency in Croatia this summer, we spent 3 weeks working on Emotion Recognition, Psychophysics Machines and Sound Generation.

Łukasz Szałankiewicz aka Zenial joins us to perform at Izlog Festival on the 2nd of May. He will be the first one to use our emotion system prototype live on stage as part  of our Saturn3 setup.

 

          

The work is coproduced at Kontejner within the framework of EMAP / EMARE and co-funded by Creative Europe.