Remaking “Sharing Human Technology with Plants” with HEXA

[Tianqi]

Thank you @gary.zabel ! I used to build installations/new media to explore the relationship between living beings and robots. However after I started up Vincross, I devoted almost all of my inspiration into our robot products, including HEXA. I will launch a new robot before long, which is highly aesthetical and conceptual. I will let you know. If you are interested in robot art installations as well, I would like to have an opportunity to cooperate. Thank you again!

[gary.zabel]

Thanks for your reply. When the time is right, we should explore the possibility of cooperation as you suggest. In the meantime, I’m attaching a document from a course I designed on the philosophical significance of robotics (I teach philosophy at the University of Massachusetts at Boston).

Best,
Gary

Minds_Machines_and_Organisms_Robots_in_W.pdf (691 KB)

[Tianqi]

Hi Gary. Thank you for sharing the amazing course. I have read it and I believe your students would love it! (Though it’s a little weird that it ended with Mark Tilden after the great men from Democritus to Alan Turing and John Searle.) I love the course. Please feel free to let me know if anything I can assistant.

[gary.zabel]

Thanks so much for the kind comment. You are right about the incongruity of ending with Tilden. When I designed the course, I was still building BEAM robots, and found some of Tilden’s creations intriguing. But his project hit a dead end when his analogue approach to robot design reached its limit, and he, of course, went on to make toys for Wowee, a depressing conclusion to a once promising career.

Best,
Gary

[joe.youngblood]

When will there be a version of this available for sale? Definitely want one of this in the office.

[sweeney]

@Tianqi what a wonderful project! Thank you for sharing

Would you be willing to share the CAD of the flower pot top you made?

Thank you!

[mhandoc]

Would love to be kept up to date with production, purchase and investment opportunities for this project. This is the future I believe in.

[Tianqi]

Hello @joe.youngblood @sweeney @mhandoc ! I hope this robot make you happy. Currently I have no plan to commercialize this mod. My intent in creating it is to inspire people to think about the relationship between human technology and natural limitation, and the boundaries between living being and machine with robotics. While at the time of building this, I built it as more of an installation art piece rather than functional robot. But based on the interest I’m hearing, I see that people are interested in adding robotics into their homes with a product such as this. So maybe we better get building

[curtis]

This is amazing!!

I am in love with your plant robot. I would love to have a couple little spiders with spider plants.

[sophiaolivveira]

When we think about a union with technology and nature, this is the results. what a gorgeous prroject!

[tannakartikey]

How does Hexa “understand” the feelings of the plant?

[sirgi.saar]

Hi!
I am new here - someone posted the video to my facebook page and here I am trying to write to Tianqi (and all others who read it). I tried to build something similar, but with slightly different purpose in 2016 (arduino, robotics class in university - in the end I never got to test my hypothesis, although my team indeed built a plant robot).
Anyway - I did my PhD on plant behaviour, mainly researching how plants sense their neighbours via roots. So I cannot entirely agree on plants being passive - slow, yes, but they certainly behave.
What if we could take input of where plant wants to go from the plant? I certainly would want to see if there are any emergent properties i.e. does plant understand that it can move? Can it control the robot?

if interested, let me know sirgi[dot]saar[at]gmail.com

All the best,
Sirgi (researcher in Tartu University, Estonia)

[malcolm.8]

Hi, this is super cool and intriguing however, I’d like to know how you tell that the plant is “happy,” “grumpy” or “playing with a human.” What parameter of the plant are you reading to designate it “happy,” for example? And “grumpy”? What parameter are you reading to make it move into the sun or into the shade? Thanks!

[Tianqi]

@sirgi.saar Luckily I didn’t miss your post. I’m very interested in your research! Will write to you later.

[sirgi.saar]

I am trying to apply for postdoc with this idea

[production]

Dear Tianqi,
I would like to send you a proposal for collaboration between vincross, a art contemporary museum and an artist.
I’ve just send it to hi[at]vincross[dot]com but I’d like to be able to contact you directly and explain more details. I appreciate that you can contact me at production[at]santiagosierra[dot]org
Looking forward to your thoughts.
Thank you

[1096184876]

Hexa追逐阳光部分，采用的传感器是内部自带的还是外部的，可以提供这个skill么？或者是更多的资料。

[1096184876]

Dear Tianqi

Hexa chasing the sun: Can you provide skill?What sensors are used to achieve this function?Is the sensor internal or external

[Tianqi]

I sent you an email.

[Tianqi]

Hi, we don’t provide or sell this skill since it’s experimental. The sensors are external.