Robot Dance Duet
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Monday, 8 of December , 2008 at 12:31 am
While looking up the ABB Capoeira Challenge on YouTube, I ran across this video of a dance piece choreographed for an ABB robot and a human dancer. Called Actuator, the piece premiered in Finland last May, and was choreographed by Thomas Freundlich. It’s interesting, but like the Capoeira thing, there appears to be a very limited amount of actual human robot interaction, and a lot more human and robot doing their own thing on opposite ends of the stage. I’m still waiting for someone to take full advantage of the strength robot arms have to offer, and use them to chuck people around. In an artsy way, of course.
See how Freundlich made it happen, after the jump.
[ Actuator ]
Comments (3)
Category: Art,Industrial
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Comment by Thomas Freundlich
Made Monday, 8 of December , 2008 at 4:55 am
Thanks your comments and a great site! BotJunkie has gone straight into my bookmarks.
I’m with you on this one, as I wish it would have been possible to have some closer interaction with the robot on stage. This was actually my original concept, but let me tell you – once you’ve seen one of these things moving around at max speed, you really don’t want to spend too much time in its working area! :)
Even this dance piece was quite a departure from the way the machines are set up in industrial applications with their multiple levels of safety shutoffs. But I’m sure that eventually we’ll see industrial robots with new kinds of safety solutions that would allow more hands-on interaction with the machine. This would of course make it possible to create a “real” partnering dance between human and robot. Now that would really be something!
Best,
Thomas Freundlich
choreographer/dancer
Comment by Ironman
Made Monday, 8 of December , 2008 at 11:27 am
nice comment by the actual dancer.
what i think should be done is treat industrial robots just like humans see them now. Aka dangerous unforgiving calculating machines. Make it an angry dance with the robot making every fierce dangerous move possible. Bring out the true emotions people feel about industrial robots. Don’t try and make it seem like they’re working hand in hand with us. They’re caged beasts, who we can control extremely well… but none the less caged beasts.
Comment by Evan Ackerman
Made Monday, 8 of December , 2008 at 5:42 pm
Yeah, I’m not the one who has to dance next to a strong, heavy, moving robot arm that could get pissed and TURN ON YOU AT ANY SECOND. :) I guess we’ve got a way to go before machine interaction becomes flexible enough (so to speak) to allow safe, realtime direct interaction. The arm would have to predict the trajectory of the dancer and then determine if an interaction would be harmful, while still allowing for some physicality… It’s tricky, but I’m sure ultimately possible. I’m looking forward to it, in any case!
