Group members: Victoria Gottardi, Siyu Sun, Maryam Dehghani, Yueming Gao

Investigation

Can robots only simulate humans? Can robots be “othered”? Inspired by post-humanism, the relationship between organisms and machines is both evolutionary and simulated. Will future human pets also be mechanized? When humans interact with mechanical animals, can emotions also be generated?

The background is about post-humanism and the potential evolution of relationships between living organisms and machines. With the rise of robotics and artificial intelligence, it is essential to consider the implications of these advancements for the future of society.

Moreover, the question of whether machines can be “othered” raises significant questions about how we perceive and interact with technology. If we can create machines that appear to have a sense of self or otherness, it is possible that our relationship with technology will become more complex and nuanced. As we continue to develop more advanced robotics and artificial intelligence, it is crucial to consider the ethical implications of these advancements and how they may shape the future of society.

In this Project 2, we aimed to explore the idea of simulating the habits of cats using a mechanical arm. The project seeks to achieve a level of interaction between the robot and humans, such that it appears like a cat playing in the human world. We’ll use Processing and a robot arm to establish a connection between the two and design two basic actions to simulate the behaviour of a cat.

Process

In Devs4, to test whether our group’s project concept can be implemented initially, we hope that the robot can do some simple interactions with humans. We use Processing to connect with the robot. Basically, we need to send data to the robot and design two basic actions to simulate a cat. Therefore, we plan to test two actions first: The first action involves the robot arm slapping something off a table, while the second action is a slower movement followed by quick hits. These actions are designed to mimic the behavior of a cat and create a sense of interaction between the robot and the human observer. Therefore, we designed two States.

State1: Simulate a cat slapping something.

State2: Simulate a cat hitting something.

The following pictures are the test screens.

Robot Script URL: https://github.com/vicisnotokay/Devs-4