快猫短视频

How do people react when brought face-to-face with intelligent robots for the first time? It鈥檚 a question that has fascinated Mari Velonaki for nearly a decade. But she is no anthropologist. She鈥檚 not even a scientist in the conventional sense. Velonaki is an artist with a PhD, and a passion for electronics. She is also determined enough to have convinced the prestigious Australian Centre for Field Robotics in Sydney to give her a desk, lab space and expert assistance to help her understand what happens when humans interact with mechanical beings.

Velonaki has collaborated with robotics scientists at the centre to create Fish-Bird, a live exhibition comprising a pair of moody, love-struck robots disguised as wheelchairs that can communicate through movement and written text. The exhibit has delighted and excited people all over the world. At the same time it has given researchers valuable data on the relationship between bots and people. One thing that surprised them was how long visitors spent with the robots. Many spent 30 to 40 minutes per visit; one visitor came back every day for a week. Men, women and children relate to them in different ways. Everyone appears to project human qualities onto them.

The experience, Velonaki told Rachel Nowak, has taught her many things. One of the lessons is that artists like her who work with technology may have more in common with scientists in terms of what it takes to realise their ideas than they do with others from the broader art world.

You鈥檝e designed an exhibition starring two love-struck robots that look like decrepit wheelchairs. What鈥檚 it all about?

Fish-Bird is based on a fairy tale from Greece about a fish and a bird that fall in love but cannot be together: one needs water to breathe, and the other air. They learn how to negotiate, to accept their differences and that they cannot be together all the time. There is no happy ending in my story, so it is much more realistic than the usual fairy tale. Because it is about physical limitations and negotiation, I chose to build robots that looked like wheelchairs. Fish is a blue wheelchair, Bird is a red one. It is an idea that I had been trying to make happen for eight years.

But these are not traditional robots鈥�

No, they are not cute or pet-like. The chairs are old-fashioned. They have motors, processors and computers, all hidden within the upholstery. Everything is wireless. They communicate with each other and with other devices via Bluetooth radio links. The chairs are equipped with infrared collision sensors, and there are cameras and scanning laser measurement systems in the space where they are exhibited so each chair is always aware of both its own position and the position of its 鈥渃ompanion鈥�. If there is a problem anywhere and we鈥檙e not there, we can communicate with the robots by email from anywhere in the world.

Can you explain what a visitor sees when they visit Fish-Bird at a gallery?

The robots are in a room. Two people are allowed in at a time. To start with, Fish and Bird move differently according to their mood. They have seven moods based on days of the week. If, for example, someone visits them on Monday, they are a bit maudlin; Fish is a bit shyer and tends to go into the corners. Other days they are more social. They might approach you or run away, go backwards or circle the room. In a good mood they might get close to each other. It also depends on what happened the previous day or what happened two hours before, because Fish and Bird have a memory of their mutual relationship.

They also have three emotional states for how they feel about themselves (not very happy, neutral and positive), and three states for how they feel about each other, which will determine how they鈥檒l react to their visitors. Fish and Bird鈥檚 behaviour also depends on how many people come in, how physically close they are to them and how much time each person spends with them. Fish and Bird also write love letters to each other and communicate with spectators via printed messages.

How do they do that?

We use little thermal printers below the seats that drop messages on the floor. The room fills with paper so it has an element of performance. People love it. The content of a message depends on how much time spectators spend with Fish and Bird and how they move. If children chase the robots, a message might say: 鈥淪top, my wheel is falling off.鈥� If they are really, really frustrated, they go in the corner and don鈥檛 move.

How have people reacted to Fish-Bird?

It is bizarre. People will talk to them, pat them and ask them questions. They will say things like: 鈥淎re you afraid of me?鈥� or 鈥淐ome closer.鈥� They often think that the robot is capable of more than it actually is.

Men, especially, will try to work out how they move, because the motors are concealed. They look to see what makes them move. They wonder if the robots are remote-controlled, or if they are being watched.

鈥淚f the robots are really frustrated, they go in the corner and don鈥檛 move鈥�

Children, on the other hand, pat Fish and Bird, kiss them and encourage them to print more messages. At one venue, the New South Wales Parliament House, they crawled about on the floor to be on the same level as the robots. This was incredible. In 10 years of work I have never seen anything like this. It appears that people project human attributes onto the robots and relate quite closely to them even though they look like wheelchairs.

How did you convince scientists at the Australian Centre for Field Robotics to work with you?

I knew that some really amazing things were happening at the centre. So I called Hugh Durrant-Whyte, its research director, and said: 鈥淚鈥檓 an artist, and I鈥檝e got this proposal that I would like you to consider.鈥� Hugh asked me in the following week. I showed him my work, as well as the proposal for Fish-Bird. I also showed him that we had a basic language in common 鈥� that I could design, construct and assemble a circuit board. It wasn鈥檛 as if I was a painter who suddenly wanted to work with robotics. There was a very honest exchange and he was really interested.

From your experience, do artists, engineers and scientists have much in common?

There is a lot in common. They are passionate and proud people who create things that didn鈥檛 previously exist. People who are passionate understand other people鈥檚 passions; that鈥檚 why I鈥檓 there. You go there on Saturday and people are working. You are there at 10 o鈥檆lock at night and people are working. It鈥檚 not because they are scared about losing their jobs; they are working because they are really proud of what they do. They are like artists.

How do you think collaborating with engineers has changed you?

I鈥檓 less temperamental. I raise my voice less than I used to. I am wary not of what I say but the way I say it. 快猫短视频s and engineers have a wonderful, civilised way of communicating with each other, with respect, with reasoning. I always feel I am the most brutal person in there. I鈥檓 trying to be nicer. I鈥檓 also amazed by their commitment to high standards even for something that is not visible.