Robytes
Photo courtesy of R. Terrill.
A robotic chef prepares a seafood
treat. Photo courtesy of Oriental
Physical Machine Industry Co., Ltd.
to grill octopus balls (insert your own
joke here). The exact ingredients were
not revealed, but the bot does follow
“a strict recipe for making the delicacy,
crafting each octopus ball individually
from scratch.” It also flips each piece
while it’s grilling, then sticks it on a
bamboo skewer, puts it on a plate,
dribbles some sauce on it and, finally,
shakes on some spices. Soon to be
available at Long John Tentacle’s.
dreams and programming a
robot to reenact them. The
disappointing thing is that, of
course, it doesn’t actually do
that. But it does log a sleeping
subject’s eye position and
translates that into the bot’s
head movement; if your eyes
move to the left, so does the
robot head, and so on. It also
uses brainwave activity as detected by an EEG readout, assigning
preprogrammed behaviors to
a set of recognized brainwave
patterns. Sleep Waking is meant
to be viewed primarily as a
metaphorical vision of the future, so
it is pretty much art for art’s sake. The
robot’s movements have even been set
to music by San Francisco’s spaced-out
Ade Lun Sec ( www.adelunsec.net).
However, the creators managed to
get partial funding from Union College
and the Albany Regional Sleep
Disorder Center, so someone
apparently believes that it has some
practical potential. You can view a
performance at www.youtube.com
/v/1RkM1Bt2b3k&. SV
Bot Bugs Bums
On a different level of the
comestibles business is “Bum Bot,”
created to drive trespassers away
from a section of Atlanta that includes
O’Terrill’s Irish pub ( www.oterrills.com)
and the Beacon of Light Daycare
Center. Pub owner Rufus Terrill created
the mechanism from a three-wheeled
scooter and a barbecue smoker,
equipping him with a spotlight, IR
camera, PA system, and water cannon,
the latter of which is capable of hosing down urban outdoorsmen from a
distance of 20 ft. The 400-lb Bum Bot
is operated by remote control, and a
walkie-talkie provides him with the
ability to address undesirable visitors
in an authoritative voice. You can see
him in action at www.youtube.com/
watch?v=y4mRJY6NEwI.
According to Beacon operator
Lydia Meredith, the whole square is
“enveloped with homeless people and
drug dealers, defecating, urinating,
prostituting — the whole nine yards.”
And a nearby playground is habitually
littered with used syringes and
condoms. While most of the locals
have nothing but praise for Bum Bot,
a representative of the Atlanta police
has warned Terrill that he “would be
committing an assault if he intentionally sprays water on someone when
in control of the robot.” As they say,
you just can’t please everyone. But if
you’re in town, say “hi” to the Bummer
and try O’Terrill’s award-winning fish
and chips. At only $11.99 for a 10-oz
haddock filet, hand-cut chips, and
homemade slaw, you won’t get
hosed — at least while you’re inside.
Automaton of Your Dreams
Fernando Orellana and Brendan
Burns, a Ph.D. roboticist, have created
“Sleep Waking” (that’s Waking, not
Walking), as an experiment in linking
REM sleep to robot behaviors. The
interesting thing is that it was inspired
by the concept of tapping into your
Brainwave-inspired robot in
flying stance. Photo courtesy of
fernandoorellana.com.
SERVO 05.2008 9
