Day 1: (Tue Aug 26, Week 1) Welcome and Introduction¶

Notes for 2025-08-26.

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: explore human-robot interaction and deception
Examples of previous projects:
Mutual introductions, In-Class Exercise: Interview Game
- Name tags and photos.
Administrative
- Course site: https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu/16-375
  - Daily log pages (like this one): Daily Agenda Logbook
  - Canvas
- My Office Hours and Zoom information (i.e. on request)
- Laser cutter qualification: see IDeATe Laser Cutters. IDeATe will host special fire extinguisher training sessions on-site on Tue Sep 9 at 3:30PM and Wed Sep 10 at 10AM, sign-up details TBD.
- Attendance and tardiness policies.
- Health Absence Policy
- Electronic device policies.
- Google Shared Drive and Data Retention
- Generative Artificial Intelligence
- Physical Computing Lab
  - card access
  - for all questions about IDeATe facilities, please email help@ideate.cmu.edu
  - Physical Computing Lab use and abuse
  - we are sharing the room with other classes (see IDeATe PhysComp Lab Calendar)
  - fire exits
  - Federal Law Enforcement
Assignments
- Please complete the RCP Fall 2025 Skill Survey if you haven’t already. This should just take a few minutes.
- Please arrange for laser-cutter training if you have not already done so. Details on the current requirements can be found on IDeATe Laser Cutters.
Brief mid-class break

so what’s a robot anyway?
- a surprisingly animate machine [1]
the question of hidden agency
- several meanings of agency in play: authorial, artifactual
- intrinsic to any designed artifact, but acute for devices with behavior
- currently relevant to ‘AI’
- not always addressed in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) research
related video
- Little Brother, Institute for Applied Autonomy
- Helpless Robot, Norman White
- Beatbots, Marek Michalowski
- Mechanical Ottoman [23]
- Trash Can Robot [3]
what might we do?
- ambient architectural interactions
- public space interactions
- attention-seeking behavior
- unconscious manipulation
- teleoperated interactions: machine form, human intuition, semi-automated behaviors
- simple machines play to our institutional strengths
- programming at the AI Makerspace is an option

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 interactive systems
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