“Robot, Doing Nothing”: zenon at the Ars Electronica Festival

The project “Robot, Doing Nothing” was designed and developed by the Viennese artist and designer Emanuel Gollob in collaboration with Johannes Braumann from the Creative Robotics Lab of the University of Art and Design Linz. Gollob envisions a post-industrial future in which robots are not only used in industry but also in daily life. The focal point is the proven effect of consciously doing nothing, which boosts both concentration and efficiency. Meditative robot installations in public spaces therefore encourage people to deliberately do nothing. Stimulating shapes and colors put the public into a meditative state, which inspires, stimulates mental activity, and therefore increases social efficiency.

 

Ergonomic collaboration between human and machine

 

The installation consists of an industrial robot (the KR 210 R3100 from the QUANTEC ultra series from KUKA), a laser scanner from SICK, a 49-inch monitor, and our zenon software. A panel with cords is secured to the robotic arm. The other cord ends are mounted statically in the room. If a visitor walks into the scanner's laser field, the robot turns toward them and in doing so creates complex, geometric patterns using the cords on display. The KUKA robot is controlled in real time by means of the KUKA mxAutomation interface and can therefore respond directly to the public. zenon combines the data from the laser scanner with that from the robot and visualizes this for the visitors on a large monitor. On the one hand, the zenon application shows a 3D visualization of the robot, and on the other, presents important dynamic data such as axis values or load data. By scanning a provided QR code, visitors reach a web-based zenon application, which is accessible worldwide thanks to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. “Robot, Doing Nothing” is therefore not only an aesthetic, kinetic sculpture, but also a demonstrator of many of the aspects of Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things – with the aim of making production more flexible and working with complex machines more intuitive.

 

You will find the project “Robot, Doing Nothing” at the Ars Electronica Festival on the 1st floor of POSTCITY.

 

Information about the project partners:

 

Artistic concept: Emanuel Gollob, www.emanuelgollob.com

Technical concept: Johannes Braumann, University of Art and Design Linz/Creative Robotics Lab, www.ufg.ac.at/Labor-Kreative-Robotik.13780.0.html in collaboration with COPA-DATA

KUKA Roboter CEE GmbH, www.kuka.com

Association for Robots in Architecture, www.robotsinarchitecture.org/

Sound/Sonification: Michael Schweiger/UFG Soundstudio, http://www.ufg.ac.at/Missionstatement.8584+M52087573ab0.0.html

Visuals: Chris Noelle, www.metofa.com

 

Ars Electronica Festival, POSTCITY Linz, September 7-11, 2017

 

The Ars Electronica Festival is the world's largest festival for media art. Launched in 1979, it attracts thousands of visitors each year to the capital of Upper Austria. In 2016, the festival recorded more than 85,000 visitors from more than 30 countries who attended the more than 500 individual events designed by over 800 artists, scientists, and activists. You can also find more information at www.aec.at/ai

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