This is the video that I was talking about where they stack e-magnets inside one another. They show a brief inside look at the coil plates. You can skip to 4 minutes.

docs.google.com/file/d/0B1-bOT9lxBRjYklfVUpKREFxcm8/edit?usp=sharing

Above is a device made by Alan Storey that plots the movement of four different ballerinas performing The Four Seasons. The dialog between the performance of the dancers pertain to the passage of time. At the end of the performance the image is revealed to the audience as if gesturing a bow. One of the interesting things about this piece to me is the simplicity of materials and mechanics or “low-tech”. There is a nostalgic quality to this simplicity that speaks to a desire for a simpler time with more primitive technology.

parietals 2005 from Anne Lilly on Vimeo.

Anne Lilly (above) makes these beautifully crafted interactive kinetic sculpture that are highly and precisely ordered. Although she uses very industrial materials she accomplishes very fluid and organic movements.

Ventilator, 1997 by Olafur Eliasson by C-Monster

In this piece by Olafur Eliasson I enjoy the simple whimsical behavior that moves quite arbitrarily around the massive space.

I thought Simon Penny is a good reference especially in the discussion/ critique on artificial intelligence.

Sustainability is definitely a hot topic of discussion. With robots to the rescue there is no doubt that this is an attainable dream. I love the notion of a delicate closed loop system that depends on the proper function of all its parts.

This little device made by David Bowen must be a version of Braitenberg’s vehicles that has attractive behavior to what it senses (either 2b or 4a). The nice thing about this little bot is that it synthesizes its own power from the source that it is attracted to. The set up is slightly different in that the object of desire is out of reach and so the bot ends up circling around the light source never satisfied.

This is a combination of the previous pendulum project and my first pulse modulated motor. This allows me to deliver more power and have control over the speed of the swing.

This robot created by Festo listens to a piece of music breaking each note down into pitch, duration, and intensity. It then plugs that information into various algorithms derived from Conway’s “Game of Life” and creates a new composition while listening to one another producing an improv performance. Conway’s “Game of Life” put simply is a 2d environment where cells(pixels) react to neighboring cells based on rules.

They are:
Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if caused by under-population.
Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.
Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overcrowding.
Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.

This algorithm tends to evolve as time passes and created in an attempt to simulate life.

This robot essentially mimics how composers take a musical motif and evolve it over the life of the piece. The robot sets the sensory information from the music played to it as the initial condition or motif and lets the algorithm change it. Since western music is highly mathematical, robots are naturals. I would say this robot has more characteristics human/animal behavior in Wiener’s example of the music box and the kitten. Unlike the music box this robot performs in accordance with a pattern yet this pattern is directly effected by its past.

This is a laser pendulum. The motor driving the pendulum turns on when the laser is blocked from contacting photo sensor. Each time the laser hits the sensor the motor switches direction.
 

Reading about robotic gardeners reminded me of my Uncle Rodger. He farms over 80,000 acres out in Kansas and purchases new equipment every few years. Last summer he and I had a conversation about his process and he mentioned various robotic equipment including this combine harvester. The machinery uses GPS and various sensors to guide the combine along the planted rows, turn around, and align itself again harvesting in the opposite direction. An employee still rides along to monitor the behavior of the machine. Rodger said that employing these robots they are able to yield  more of the crop otherwise missed by human error. After poking around the web I found this post on arduino forum where a DIY’er modified his combine to behave in the same why with relatively cheap components.