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January 17 2012

rubbd

Rule #6: Meet People’s Expectations

robot school teacher

For past entries and an introduction to the 11 Golden Rules of Anthropomorphism and Design, click here. 

People expect many things from each other: Expect them to say hi in the morning; expect them to buy a ticket for the bus; expect them to watch out when driving a car; expect them to do their jobs well. People also expect certain behaviors from anthropomorphic products. When a product works differently than promised, this can cause confusion or anger. When a person gives commands to a product and the product ignores him, he becomes frustrated, because the product feels like a person who rudely turns his back. You wouldn’t accept that behavior from a person, so why would you accept it from a product?

The robot Saya has been developed to teach elementary-grade school children. She can speak different languages and make facial expressions, and hopefully confirm to what the kids expect of an instructor.

Image via The Daily Mail.

Tags: Nature becomes culture anthropomorphism and design Anthropomorphobia Biomimicmarketing Bionics Manufactured-Bodies robotics

January 10 2012

rubbd

Rule #5: Consider Zoomorphism as an Alternative

aibo dog

Part 5 of the 11 part series Golden Rules of Anthropomorphism and Design. 

When a product imitates animal behavior, the strict social rules governing anthropomorphic products don’t apply. People may be much more forgiving when a zoomorphic product makes an error, and fascinated rather than disturbed when it behaves other than expected. Similar to how we think a person walking in circles on the street is weird, but a dog chasing its tail is funny, Sony’s robot dog Aibo is considered adorable, while Honda’s humanoid robot Asimo seems clumsy and slow.

Image via Flicker user pt. For the rest of the series, see part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.

Tags: Nature becomes culture anthropomorphism and design Anthropomorphobia Humane-Technology Manufactured Animals robotics

December 14 2011

rubbd

Protei, the Sail Bot that Cleans Up Oil

protei test

Protei is a sailing robot that’s designed to clean up oil spills without human assistance. After sailing upwind, the bot drifts downwind, zigg-zagging across the surface to absorb oil in its long, tail-like boom. Since Protei is self-righting, it will be able to operate even under hurricane conditions, keeping human crews out of danger from both high winds and toxic chemicals. The robots can be operated by remote control, or can be programmed to work together as an autonomous swarm.

Though it’s currently only a prototype, the eco-friendly, open-source Protei may some day radically change how we clean up the ocean. Though it was originally designed to sop up  future Deepwater Horizons, modified Protei could possibly be used to gather plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

More photos after the jump.

Thanks to Alex Adriaasens. Photos via Cesar Harada’s Flickr page.

Tags: Nature becomes culture Plastic Planet robotics Wild Robots Wild-systems
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