With Silas Adekunle of Reach Robotics I have just been awarded a REACT Prototype grant to research playful robotics. More as it develops, but here’s a bit of the application:
Reach Robotics has designed an entertainment robot controlled by a smart phone game, palm-sized and personalisable. The aim of the project is to develop a futuristic gaming platform through combining advanced robotics technology with playful media forms such as role playing games and transmedia. The characters will be personalisable robots to which the player can become emotionally attached. The research component will test the ideas and prototype with target users, focussing firstly on the kinaesthetics and tactility of the robots, their control and ‘feel’, and secondly on the role of media imagery and game mechanics in the contextualisation and dramatisation of the robots’ actions and behaviours.
Great ideas here. I guess Possibilities of collaboration and working as a team of animactors could also be explored almost like a virtual theatre.