aesthetics & power

Public lab with an industrial robot
2000

“aesthetics and power” was a public experimental station by robotlab. From February 17 to April 2, 2000, an industrial robot stood in the foyer of the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe. For six weeks, it provided an environment for exploring the relationship between man and machine.

The six-axis KUKA KR 125 articulated arm robot weighs 2.5 tons with its foundation and has an operating radius of approximately three meters. It can move 125 kilograms at a maximum speed of two meters per second and place them in the room with an accuracy of two tenths of a millimeter.

Industrial robots operate in special industrial spaces. They are actors in industrial culture, but not part of our everyday lives. You can see the machines from time to time in pictures or on television, but few people have direct contact with them.

What happens when a robot acts in public? What happens to the people in its presence and to the images of robots that we carry in our heads?

By constantly working in public space, the public had the opportunity to observe the robot in physical presence. Its massive appearance and the unusual display of force in movement and machine noise challenge the viewer.

Interaction options intensify the contact between man and machine. Thus techniques were developed to control the robot using microphones or motion sensors. With a virtual interface, the robot could be addressed directly by the audience.

Openness to the public was an integral part of the project. Ideas from discussions and practical contributions from interested parties are incorporated into the current work. Experts from disciplines such as dance, brain research, music, photography, education and film were invited.

Graphic: Juergen Betker
Kid's workshop: Banu Beyer
Choreography: Sabine Cassel
Virtual reality: Shane Cooper
Internet: Bernd Diemer
Programming: Christian Drumm
Biophysics: Guenter Haffelder
Sound design: Andreas Krach
Audio engineering: Alexander Noelle
Proofreading: Bettina Schoenfelder

Special thanks to:
Ariane Andereggen
Torsten Belschner
Prof. Dr. Thomas Beth
Louis Phillipe Demers
Prof. Dr. Ruediger Dillmann
Jürgen Enge
Ronny Haas
Martin Haeberle
Kerstin Jaunich
Gisbert Laaber
Stewart McSherry
Prof. Christian Moeller
Prof. Jeffrey Shaw
Marco Sonntag

Diary February—April 2000

02/04/2000
Final presentation.
01/04/2000
Sound connection: all data from the VRML interface is fed to sound processing software. The robot modulates its own sounds with the amplitude of the sounds of his movements depending on his position in space.

31/03/2000
The VRML interface gets extended: a webcam shows the robot on the graphical computer-surface and thus closes the circle between the absent user and machine.

30/03/2000
Detailed works on the concept for the final presentation: the robot should be controllable by the internet and the resulting movements should be converted into sounds.

29/03/2000
The dice have fallen: robotlab continues. Several activities are planned in various contexts for the next half year. The webcam will accompany the robot.

28/03/2000
The robotlab homepage has more than 80,000 hits within four weeks.

27/03/2000
The VRML interface gets extended: a sphere is modelled to become an interface between users and the robot.

26/03/2000
Text for a publication about "aesthetics and power" are written. Discussions about the graphic design.

25/03/2000
7- to 10-year old children take part at a workshop: for the first time the robotic technical term 'teaching' has a literal meaning. Each child teaches the robot to write their own name. The kids produce nice drawings of the machine and build ideas for how their own robot would appear.

24/03/2000
Preparations for the kids workshop: a huge pencil is mounted on the robot's hand and a software framework is written so that the children can teach the robot writing.

23/03/2000
Visit to the Hannover Industrial Fair.

22/03/2000
Textfolder: a theoretical characterization of the project is underway for the final presentation on April 2nd. A booklet is in preparation.

21/03/2000
Martina finishes her final diploma exams in computer sciences.

20/03/2000
The new domain is ready: www.robotlab.de.

19/03/2000
A microphone and a pitch-shifter program are used to control the robot: anyone who sings or talks into the microphone can manipulate the robot's velocity or direction by the tone pitch. The software primarily uses a small mobile robot as a server.

18/03/2000
Trust in technology? A large knife is mounted on the robot's arm. Who dares to place their hand on the small pedestal while the robot performs this well-known knife game?

17/03/2000
Guests: engineers of the company Elop, specialists for industrial robot applications.

16/03/2000
Managed: the robot's 8 bit interface works. Now it's possible to integrate the robot into more complex environments like internet, sound- or sensor installations.

15/03/2000
Visit to the applied brain researcher Guenter Haffelder in Stuttgart: concepts for a brain-robot interface are discussed.

14/03/2000
Workshop with children: corporate development of simple programs. Explicit demand of the young robotic specialists to teach the machine waving.

13/03/2000
New calibration of the robot.

11/03/2000
The "aesthetics and power" website gets 36,000 hits in the first two weeks.

10/03/2000
Concepts for new possibilities of controlling the robots are in development: a small mobile robot should be used as a 'server' for the big relative. External data is translated and transmitted to the big robot via the small fellow.

09/03/2000
Compatibility problems through the use of the serial interface of the robot's control unit. Searching for new solutions.

08/03/2000
A theoretical reflection of the robot labs is discussed. Short texts are planned to be published in the following two weeks on the web site.

06/03/2000
Extension of the robot's interactivity by activation of the interruption functions. Produced robot programs are now continuously open for the input of sensor impulses.

05/03/2000
Programs for the metallized sphere are generated: the center of the sphere is defined as the tool point. In this way the robot arm can move around the sphere which seems to by fixed in the space.

04/03/2000
A metallized sphere, diameter 20cm, is mounted on the robot arm in front of a video cam. The image on the monitor screen shows the image in the image: the distorted image of the camera, the robot and the foyer space on the sphere's surface dependent on the tool position in the space.

03/03/2000
Development of concept for a web interface: a sphere should be generated in a VRML virtual space and its rotation data transfered on a real sphere which is held by the robot in the real space.

01/03/2000
Implementation of a serial interface at the control computer: in this way future data transmission between the robot and external computers or internet should be handled.

29/02/2000
Production of interactive programs: the passing visitors trigger the behavior of the robot. Extension of the sound environment: the top levels of detected sounds are used to trigger the further sound processing.

28/02/2000
Sound connection with Andreas Krach: various contact microphones/piezos are fixed on the robot and the detected sounds are processed by the multimedia software MAX. In the next step the robot should modulate its own sounds by its configurations in space. For that the interface of the control unit has to be extended.

27/02/2000
Analytical programming of different patterns of movements with Sabine Cassel. Subject: In which manner is 'will' in the movements of the machine?

26/02/2000
The eurythmist and choreographer Sabine Cassel stays for the weekend as a guest. Questions about the relations between mechanical proportions and machine sounds are discussed. A session is planned for the evening.

25/02/2000
The "aesthetics and power" website is online.

24/02/2000
Sound experiments with sound engineer Alexander Noelle: tests with various microphones, mixers and PA. Sounds within the axis during the movements are precisely detected by a contact microphone machine sand amplified. Harmonies and intervals become audible.

23/02/2000
In the evening a first public presentation takes place. More than 100 visitors get an introduction in the actual state, goals and working concepts of the robot labs.

22/02/2000
A wireless camera is mounted on the robot arm and the image is shown on a big projection screen. Camera motions are programmed and the robot gets its first medial function.

21/02/2000
The first external sensor, a motion tracker, is connected. A initial short program for this interaction gets written.

20/02/2000
A computer place as a terminal for offline programming is set up.

19/02/2000
First small programms are written.

18/02/2000
Switching on the robot. Plugging in the emergency switch. Booting of the control unit. The robot moves for the first time. First manual teachings.

17/02/2000
The robot is delivered at the ZKM. The 1000kg machine with its 1500kg fundament are set-up in the foyer.