Pittsburgh’s Robot 250 Festival Features Electric Sheep
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Tuesday, 15 of July , 2008 at 3:25 am
As big of a fan as I am of robot festivals, it generally takes booze, sex, or violence to motivate me to travel to one. And Pittsburgh is not exactly at the top of my list. But Robot 250, sponsored by Carnegie Mellon University and the City of Pittsburgh, actually looks pretty cool. The festival takes place all around the Pittsburgh and includes lots of robotic art installations, many of which are interactive. The picture above is of Mower, a robotic sheep that walks around (on, um, six legs) and trims grass with a small blade inside its mouth. Mower’s head contains obstacle avoidance sensors and a GPS locator for fully autonomous grass mitigation operations. It was designed by Osman Khan, a visiting professor at CMU.
Okay, so it may not be quite as efficient as one of these (especially since it seems to be trailing an extension cord?), but it’s way cuter and it goes “baaaaa!” Yay! Check out the Robot 250 website for pics and movies of some of the other installations.
Comments (5)
Category: Art
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Comment by Joe
Made Tuesday, 15 of July , 2008 at 5:35 am
This is in Pittsburgh,PA not Philly.
Comment by onzi
Made Tuesday, 15 of July , 2008 at 10:28 am
oops! you said philadelphia 4 times. that’s almost as many times as it says pittsburgh on the robot250 homepage!
Comment by Evan Ackerman
Made Tuesday, 15 of July , 2008 at 3:16 pm
Holy sheep, you’re right. It’s, um, jet lag. Still. Edited.
Comment by Iron Man
Made Wednesday, 16 of July , 2008 at 5:15 pm
sheep with blades…..
wolves better watch out.
Comment by Patti
Made Wednesday, 16 of July , 2008 at 11:45 pm
Finally, the androids can get some sleep!