Adorable lost robots get where they're going with human help

Devin Coldewey

Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He has written for the TechCrunch network since 2007. Some posts he’d like you to read: The Dangers of Externalizing Knowledge | Generation i | Surveillant Society | Choose Two | Frame Wars | The User’s Manifesto | Our Great Sin His personal website is coldewey.cc. → Learn More

Saturday, April 11th, 2009

tweenbot
This is more in the line of sociology news, but it involves robots, so what the hell. A student at Tisch School of the Arts named Kacie has performed an interesting social experiment that cleaves closely to her school’s mission statement, which is to “bring delight and art into people’s lives.” She made a couple little robots which have no powers other than looking cute and rolling straight forward. With just a flag attached stating their destination (and asking for help), they were able to traverse Washington Square Park.

Kacie found that people couldn’t help picking up the little guys when they inevitably fell into gutters, bumped against walls, or were savaged and flipped by dogs (I imagine). She doesn’t mention any straying into traffic, but I get the feeling that happened once or twice.

A very cute and interesting robo-project, unlike the usual robocalypse-related stuff we see. It made my morning. Afternoon, I mean. I had a late night.

[via Reddit]

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