Tickle prototype #2, has been awarded with a first prize in 1999 at LIFE 2.0, an international competition on Art & Artificial Life.
See this page for another tickle robot: Tickle Salon
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Tickle |
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Tickle is a small autonomous robot: a blank aluminium capsule that is fitted with a pair
of nubbed rubber caterpillar tracks, to give a pleasurable tickling skin massage.
Tickle crawls over a reclining body, powered by rechargeable batteries and equipped with sensors and
motors. It has one motor for each track, so it can move forward or backward and it can turn left or right.
The robots orientation is connected to its motion in a way that prevents it from falling off the subjects body.
When it encounters a slope that is too steep, it will pivot until a safe level is found and continue its
wandering, unpredictable path. In the previous version this behaviour was implemented by a finite state
circuit that was equipped with tilt switches and logic gates. Prototype #3, developed in 2006, refines a
solution to the delicate task. In this new prototype the finite state circuit is replaced by a micro-controller.
A sensor measures pitch and roll angles and the control program decides how to move. Its behaviour is no longer
solely reflex based, but the robot is also able to perform spontaneous actions when it feels safe. The motion
possibilities are increased, which in turn generate more pleasurable feelings. Tickle prototype #2, has been awarded with a first prize in 1999 at LIFE 2.0, an international competition on Art & Artificial Life.
See this page for another tickle robot: Tickle Salon |
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