Day 1: (Tue Aug 27, Week 1) Welcome and Introduction¶

Notes for 2024-08-27.

Please make a tape nametag before we begin.

Agenda¶

Welcome to 16-375/54-375 Robotics for Creative Practice!
- scope and style of the course
- IDeATe “Physical Computing” minor
- collaboration and reflection
- major objective: continuous public machine performance
Administrative
- Course site: https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu/16-375
  - Daily log pages (like this one): Daily Agenda Logbook
  - Canvas
- Laser cutter qualification: see IDeATe Laser Cutter Policies
- Attendance and tardiness policies.
- Electronic device policies.
- Physical Computing Lab
  - Card access
  - Physical Computing Lab use and abuse
  - We are sharing the room with four other classes (see IDeATe PhysComp Lab Calendar)
  - We will also have access to Hunt A11 (adjacent study room)
- Computing Needs
- My Office Hours and Zoom information (i.e. on request)
- Name tags and photos.
Discussion and demo
1. Mutual introductions, In-Class Exercise: Interview Game.
2. Longer reflection on course themes, see Discussion notes and Related Video below.
3. Brief Webots simulator demonstration.

Please install the simulator software on your own laptop: Webots Robot Simulator, Python 3 Installation
Please complete the RCP Fall 2024 Skill Survey if you haven’t already. This should just take a few minutes.
Please complete laser-cutter training if you have not already done so. There are three parts:
- asynchronous online course: BioRAFT Laser Cutter Safety
- scheduled online course: BioRAFT Fire Extinguisher Training
- asynchronous video training: IDeATe Laser Training Part 1, IDeATe Laser Training Part 2
For more details: IDeATe Laser Cutter Policies, IDeATe Laser Cutter Overview
Special IDeATe fire extinguisher training sessions on Friday September 6 in HL 106B (Studio A):
- 11AM-12:30PM
- 2PM-3:30PM
- please sign up via this form: EH&S Fire Extinguisher Training @ IDeATe

What the course is not:
- robots as fabrication machinery
- mobile robotics
- planning and navigation
- AI and machine learning
- a unified narrative stage show; this is more of a set of explorations and experiments
human-machine collaborative performance
- hybrid performer: machine form, human intuition, semi-automated behaviors
- investigates a frontier of real-time interaction
- central premise: real-time remote performance will create audience connection
- plays to our institutional strengths

definitions of “Robotics”
- AI-oriented: the integration of sensing, cognition, and action
- Engineering: the discipline of integrating mechanism, software and electronics
- Industrial: programmable tools
- Historical: telemanipulation
- Military: teleoperation
- Cultural: machines which emulate humans
- Our working definition: surprisingly animate machines which produce embodied behavior using both algorithms and physical dynamics
definitions of “Creative Practice”. In various contexts:
- art gallery
- theater
- advertising
- consumer products
- animatronics
- the course focus this semester is toward live and improvisatory performance
definitions of “dynamic”
- \(F = m a\)
- \(\frac{dx}{dt} <> 0\)
- something that moves or changes
- closed-loop, sensor-driven feedback
- non-repeating pattern
- constructed of liquid or flexible material
- interactive
- fast or energetic
- computationally generated
- at the core: a process unfolding through both physics and computation
definitions of “surprisingly animate”. Elusive, much like “Artificial Intelligence”. For us:
- evoking life
- using physical movement and dynamics to expose hidden means and intent
- using the hidden nature of algorithms to construct a performance vocabulary
definitions of “expressive dynamic behavior”
- physical and mechanical dynamic behavior (without computation)
- programmed behavior (e.g. animation)
- feedback-driven generated behavior
- all told: creating an illusion of life and agency