Michael Shiloh

Artist - Engineer - Educator - Weird stuff aficionado

Critical Robotics

I build robots to raise question about how robots should behave, how we should behave around robots, and should be allowed to design or build robots.

Linux Robot at Blasthaus, 2006

Linux Robots

Back in 2006 I built a pair of very simple robots that could be programmed via the internet. Even then there were some examples of robots that could be controlled over the internet but this was different: you couldn't control the robot directly, and there was no webcam, so you couldn't see where you were going. Rather, upon connecting to the robot you would get a command line, on which you could write a program, compile, and run it, which would control the robot. There were examples and instructions available via a web server, also on the robot. You can see the webpage from 2006 via the Internet Archive<./a>

The robot was available to anyone who bothered to connect to it. During the duration of this project the robot would suddenly start moving. Unless the author explained this in their code, I had no idea who wrote the program or what they wanted to do. Most were quite simple, but one visitor for example wrote a program to make the robot dance.

This robot was part of the Frankenstein Theory and Robotics show at Boca Gallery in 2006 and here is some publicity for the opening.

Linux Robot at Blasthaus, 2006

Linux Robots

--here Linux Robot(1 and 2) Frankenstein Show Telepresence at Open Studios Man or Machine