This
project would integrate the sound source localization, tracking and
separation system (AUDIBLE) and elastic-variable impedance actuator
technology developed at the Université de Sherbrooke in order
to produce an interactive robotic artwork. With this project, we want
to build a single complex responsive machine which will be able to interact
with the viewers and express a wide range of lifelike behaviors (from
purely reactive to wild and deviant). Contrarily to popular entertainment
robots (like the Aibo robot dog, for example), the Protozoic Machine
is deliberately built as a machine and does not visually represent any
particular living being. Even if some of its parts are conceptually
defined as «eyes», «arms» or «legs»,
it is made as an assembly of functional parts and somewhat of an abstract
shape. Only its behaviors will turn the robot into a believable organism.
Some of these behaviors will also be controlled by a reinforcement learning
algorithm that will allow the machine to evolve over time, in different
interaction contexts. The sound localization system will be driving
two pan-tilt surveillance cameras that will act as the eyes of the creature,
constantly observing the viewer and creating the impression of being
observed. The robot will also have relative mobility, which will allow
it or some of its parts to move toward or away from the viewers, as
it senses the point of origin of the voices or the sounds in the environment.
As the robot's physical extensions will be based on variable impedance
manipulators, the viewers will also be able to touch it in different
ways and interact in a tangible manner with responsive feedback.
