Spotlight Final Documentation
This project began as an exploration of personifying robots. We thought of making this lamp that would both give and command attention from it’s viewers. Our robot stood in the middle and shined light on it’s performers until a viewer interrupted the show.
In terms of fabrication, we knew that our system of robots would be a conglomeration of lasercut and 3D printed parts. We began thinking of forms and characteristics each robot would take on. Originally we thought of expressions of emotions like laughter and fighting, from there we found our way to animals both conceptual and literal. These supporting robots eventually played roles in our garden, with our lamp standing in the middle. We repurposed robots from our past show in addition to creating new conceptual robots to take on personas that the lamp would be supervising.
As for production, we using motion capture to triangulate where users were so when they “interrupted” , the lamp would know where they were. This took on quite the technical challenge that drove the rest of our project. While we understood this was a risk, by the time the final show came around, the risk was extremely worth it. The point of this project was to create an interactive experience that intrigued and surprised users. The accuracy and reliability of the integration of motion capture and ROS led to great reactions from the audience. While this project implemented challenging tech and comewhat complex construction, it can’t necessarily be said that that was the focus of the performance. In fact, it could be said that the complex tech added another level of wonderment to the performance.
All in all, the team is satisfied with the result and excited about the opportunity to challenge ourselves. In addition to that the performance led to deeper more nuanced understanding of how tech can be integrated into art.
Roles
Tom: Programing the movement/light of the spotlight in ROS, processing motion capture in ROS, integrating animals with the Spotlight
Ben: Designing/building/assembling the Spotlight.
Avi: Programming and integration of animal robots with ROS
Abel: Programming and integration of animal robots with ROS
Elton: CADing and Laser Cutting the three animal robots. Motion Capture Set Up (Setting up network streaming, Moving Cameras, Calibrating), researching props, installation of props/robots
Sam: Assisted in design in Spotlight and animal robots. Final assembly and painting of spotlight parts
ZIP of the Animal Robot DXFs: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nqYG1tPH75_7_2r2FtzmMv3LGiha8_5C/view?usp=sharing
Code:
https://github.com/Toms42/rcp_spotlight
zip file below:
CAD:
Zip-file below
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uvq7704unAnncukpAVNLdFRt23_n9zOe/view?usp=sharing
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