Sensory Perception & Interaction, Research Group

Complex interactive haptic machines are hard to design and control, especially when their object is expressive behavior that cannot be specified a priori. Simple 1-degree-of-freedom (DOF) devices support rapid iteration, but reduce expressive space. We are developing complex robots and their interactions by iterating rapidly on simple proxies. With rapid prototyping techniques and an easily extendable behaviour editing system, we decomposed the design of a complex haptic robot into single-DOF `CuddleBits'. Each Bit is a functional, self-contained robot with which we can fully explore the expressive capacity of a single movement(e.g. breathing, hunching, orienting) in form, movement and feel. In this demo, we present the CuddleBits, their construction, and real-time robot behaviour improvisation and editing tools Voodle and MacaronBit.