IDO ANIMA

By Tove Kjellmark and Bengt Sjölén

Ido Anima är ett konstnärligt gestaltande experiment. Projektet består av att bygga en fyra meter hög, kraftfull och söt kinetisk skulptur som speglar rörelser från en identisk men mycket liten kopia. Arbetet innefattar hittills oprövade tekniska lösningar och interaktiva visningsformer. I utställningssammanhang vill vi, genom att involvera publiken i interaktionen mellan dessa, utmana och undersöka människans relation till maskiner.

Utsnitt ur arbetsprocessen:

self-stabilizing cyclic feedback

Machines make it possible for the human body to move at speeds and over distances that are otherwise impossible for human flesh and form. Machines have created a prosthetics of movement, extending our ability to move, our abilities, our senses. In the post-industrial digital age, the boundary between human and machine is blurred, we are all robots now.

What is behind our ancient pursuit for creating mechanical life? What does this pre-occupation tell us about the nature of our species? How will human psychology and movement evolve alongside that of robots? The Ido Anima project focuses on questions about the relation between man and machine.

Ido is the Japanese word for Id, the subconscious. This well of instincts is the invisible force that drives and controls our actions as conscious beings - actions often violent, without warning, difficult or impossible to interpret. In Japanese Ido also means motion.

To move is to think. A prosthetics of movement is a prosthetics of mind; the age of machines and automata creates a new psychology. In science fiction and the field of artificial intelligence, people ask if robots will one day think like us. But if mind and movement are united, then we can first observe how robots move. Anima is the true inner self. To understand our inner self, we need to understand the kinetics of our relationship with robots.

Den vita delen är laserskuren akrylplast med ett hål format som ett inverterat kugghjul så att det passar på kugghjulet på axeln på servomotorn. Jag gjorde bara en design men 4 av samma del så det egendomligt formade hålet i andra änden är ett monteringshål för ytterligare ett servo så att armarna kan länkas ihop till en lång ormliknande form med 4 frihetsgrader.

På varje arm sitter det 2 st RC servomotorer, modifierade så att de förutom signalen som styr deras position även berättar hur de är vridna i varje ögonblick. De alltför många hålen är till för att kunna hålla kablarna på plats med buntband så att de inte blir intrasslade i sig själv. Det lite större runda hålet passar en M6 bult eller ett stativ och är till för att kunna hålla fast armen i ena änden.

The white part is laser-cut acrylic plastic with a hole shaped as the inverse of the cogwheel of the axis of the motor so that it snaps right onto it. I made only one design but 4 of the same part so the strangely shaped hole in the end is the mounting hole for the body of a another servo. (So the arms could actually be joined to one long snake-like limb with 4 degrees of freedom.

On each arm there are 2 RC servo motors modified with an added sensor output coming out of it so that you can not only tell them how to turn but also know how they are turned in each moment. The too many holes are for cable straps to hold the cables so it doesn't get entangled in itself and one hole for an M6 bolt so it can be mounted fixed in one end.

From the working process with The Destruction of the Ego

Description

Ido Anima consists of a huge, heavy and powerful cute robot that mirrors the movements of an identical but very small robot. You can hold the small robot in your hand and manipulate it then the big robot will follow every twitch. If the big robot falls and its limbs are forced, their movements will also be mirrored by the small robot which will jigger in your hands. There is a voodoo-doll-like relation between the small robot, that we can manipulate, and the large robot that is out of reach for us but obeys every twitch of the small one.

Illustration

Rationale

The small robot is the Unconscious, the unseen force controlling and driving the movement of the larger robot. The small robot operates at the human scale. The large robot amplifies and extends human movement and awareness. Are humans the Id, the unconscious of a future that belongs to robots?

Ido Anima creates an experimental relationship between human and machine, we feel as one with the robot, but have absolute power over it in our hands. We have empathy for the machine and dont want to harm it but we unconditionally will fail it and make it fall while manipulating it - maybe we are even tempted to execute the absolute power over the machine that we are given?

Imitation is a central phenomenon in human learning, identification and empathy. Our brains perform the same operations when we observe someone doing an action as the one who performs that same action. Is this true for a machine too? That our brains, when we animate a machine or toy, also simulates and within us performs the actions of the object?

Just like that we can put ourselves in the situation of others, we can put ourselves in the situation of a machine or a toy and feel with it. We then animate it, and give it life in our minds, ascribing the machine properties and feelings that we relate to being human. This also changes how we relate to the machine and enables us to feel with it - an experiment in empathy.

Background

Tove Kjellmark and Bengt Sjölen have collaborated since the beginning of 2010. A multi-disciplinary collaboration that accelerated the process of The Destruction of the Ego (http://www.vimeo.com/12072175) and has evolved into collaboration around Ido Anima.

Development Process

The process will consist of developing a mechanical construction and form for the robot, electronics for control, motor drivers and software for interactivity.

Motor power, mechanical stability and the autonomy of the machine all are closely related and important in order to be able to produce and show the work in an exhibition. A few smaller prototypes, less then a meter tall, will be produced to test form and function and evaluate how well they perform in expression and interactivity. Critical properties are amongst other things the capability to autonomously stand up and turn from all poses that the robot can assume, never to lock itself in a pose that it cannot get out of and never to destroy itself by breaking limbs, axis or similar.

Collaboration with motor and driver manufacturers for the industry would help us focus on the mechanical construction, form and software and the parts of electronics that need to be custom built for interaction and control systems. An example of a motor and driver system that can be used is Danaher Motions system for forklifts using powerful AC Servo engines and a network based on CAN-bus between drivers and controller. Absolute encoders for angles are required for all axis and limbs so that the machine can always be aware of its pose. Every limb should also be fit with an accelerometer and gyro so that the machine can have continuous information of balance and minute movements.

Interaction is based on a small model of the large robot that instead of servo motors have sensors so that it can detect the angular position of all limbs. A small computer reads these sensors several hundred times a second and sends that information over radio to the large robot. The software in the large robot will continuously try to assume the pose given by the angular sensors of the smaller robot. Angular sensors must be absolute in both the small and the large robot so that it does not need a specific start pose and so that there is no risk of drifting out of position over time.

An example of technology that can be used for wireless transmission of data is Nordic Semiconductors nRF24E1, a 6x6 mm small micro-controller with built-in 2.4GHz transceiver with 2 receivers and 1 transmitter, all capable of transmitting/receiving at 1 Mbit/s. Depending on electromagnetic noise in the environment and the architecture of the space the distance between the small and large robots can be from 20 to 100 meters. Another possibility is of course to use wifi and internet connections and then the robots do not even need to be geographically in the same location.