Japanese Researchers Build Robotic Japanese Garden Lamps
Posted on February 27, 2014
Researchers at the French Institute of Culture in Tokyo have built robotic Japanese garden lamps. The robots, also known as Toro-bots, move about the garden while communicating with a central computer. The robots automatically avoid objects and people. The robotic lamps are tracked with infrared LEDs on the top of the lamps. The bots have a quad-pod robot base from Trossen Robotics.
Automaton says the concept is bigger than just having robotic lamps walking around. It's about a grand vision of having a Japanese garden that can take care of itself.
The researchers say, "We propose here a garden that takes care of itself, that somehow understands and re-interprets the rules of harmony and equilibrium, and reconfigures itself depending on the season, the presence or absence of a human observers - that develops structure in a generative way, creating a dynamic conversation between the elements in the garden."
Take a look: