B U G S
In our Insektarium, two populations of robots live together. In
one corner, the strong robots have their nest. In the other
corner is the nest of the weak robots.
The strong robots are active during the night, so when the sun
rises they will start to head home from where ever they are to
get a good day's sleep. The weak robots sleep in their nest at
night, and as the day breaks they will head out and start looking
for food.
The strong robots are aggressive but not-so-smart predators, and
they hunt the weak robots. The weak robots are nervous grass
eaters who will try to escape when ever they sense danger.
To the left there is a frontal picture of one of the robots. It
has antennae, a carapace protecting it, big eyes, and a long
signalling device protruding from its back.
Sound
This signalling device is actually used by the robots to make
sound. Since all robots look the same (apart from the colour of their
carapace), the only way of telling a weak from a strong robot is by
its behaviour and the sounds it makes. The weak robots use nervous,
squeaky, quick sound patterns, while the strong robots use deeper,
more self confident, and slower patterns. The weak ones are always
looking over their shoulder, always on the run, while the strong ones
are cool and collected and have all the time in the world. These
characteristics are also reflected in their movements.
Behaviour
Both strong and weak robots spend the majority of their active time
looking around for food; the strong ones for weak ones, the weak ones
for grass. Other than this they display a variety of other behaviours,
such as avoiding, sleeping, heading home, etc. With each behaviour is
associated a specific sound pattern supporting that behaviour.
Behaviour and sound together express both the robot's species and its
intention.
Robot music?
The project investigates how sound and movement can form an artistic
expression. The resulting 'musical' piece has been prepared and
orchestrated by a human composer, but the actual outcome emerges as
the robots interact with each other and is thus not predictable. In
april 2000, the project was presented in the Musikhuset in Århus as part
of the Numus Festival.
(Robot builders Jørgen Møller Ilsø and Jakob Fredslund).
Dissection
The robots are made of LEGO and are controlled by LEGO Mindstorms
RCX'es. Each robot has 5 custom touch sensors, 2 custom antenna
sensors, 2 light sensors, 2 motors, and a custom, rather primitive
loud speaker. The sound is produced by sending square pulses to the
speaker. The behaviour control is managed by a motivation network;
each behavioural module has a motivation factor which depends on time,
energy, sensor values, etc., and the module with the highest
motivation factor wins and decides the behaviour.
Try these links:
Project
home page.
Video
clip of Bugs.
Another
example of sound and behaviour working together in a robot.
Sound
and behaviour working together in the humanoid robot Feelix.
My robot homepage
with robots I've built and programmed.
People
This on-going project is the work of Ole Caprani, Jens
Jacobsen, Rasmus B. Lunding, Jørgen Møller Ilsø, and Jakob Fredslund
from the LEGO-Lab at University of Aarhus, Denmark. Thanks to Luigi
Pagliarini and Thiemo Krink for valuable support.