haiku robots

The installation in Puke Ariki. Two robotic cars can be moving inside an area protected by an electronic fence.

The images above are from the cylinders. The imagery blends my hybrid pasifika ancestry with more technical looking forms such as the one on the right. The reason for the range of imagery is to reference the integrated systems context of the project.

red
is
my
ace
bird

god
hugs
yes
fern

Above are two of the live word sequences generated by the project. The aim was to create a data set and then search it for consecutive words that could consitute phrases.

 

Summary

Haiku robots combines the movement intelligence of robots with sensors and custom software, the result being live text generation. The robots literally send numbers to the computer, based on their changing location at the boundary of the project space. Numbers can be converted to text, just a phone does. Over time, word lists are generated and these are searched through for strings of words that can be construed as poetry. To view a short documentary type video on the work go to https://vimeo.com/39573417.

How it works

Two autonomous robotic cars move in a space defined by 8 cylinders, which also function as an electronic fence. When a robot approaches a cylinder, the two recognise each other and a signal is sent to the project computer. The cylinders are allocated phone pad numbers 2abc, 3def etc. Consequently the signal sent is a number, and over time this a string of numbers. The project computer runs a predictive text and spell check regime and words result. Searching the word list results in the discovery of robot poems or hybrid haiku. The sample poems are in exactly the same word order and grouping as they emerged. Once the project is switched on, no further human intervention is made - it is all movement trajectory and software. The project aimed to set up a small scale interactive or cybernetic system, as a way of solving the problem of getting robots to write poetry.

The only thing the robots are programmed to do is go forward, go backwards, turn left turn right and detect an infra red signal. The signal prevents the robots from escaping the electronic fence provided by the cylinders. If the IR signal strength is within certain parameters, the robot send a signal to the project computer, which is the number allocated to the cylinder detected.

While programmed to go backwards and forwards, turn left and right, bumping into eachother randomises the paths of the robots, which is an import function. consequently the resultant course taken by the robots each is different, and therefore each day's output is different.

Conception, visualisation and design: Ian M Clothier
Custom electronics: Andrew Hornblow
Customised software: Julian Priest
Installation: Daryl Egarr

 

Data, poems, words

The output of the robots can be treated in a simplistic way, like a data set. For example, it took six days of exhibition to get a partial sentence of coherent English: the phrase 'or deem to ask.' One of the things the project sets out to do, is to ask whether language might emerge from a combination of software and numbers. This first partial sentence might be grounds for cautiously thinking yes. Recently the phrase 'dad my map is pup' resulted, which clearly has one form of English sentence structure, if not the appropriate words. How long before we get structure and content together - that is the question. 'Nick Sow is so oh' might be a phrase said about someone, but we are after something a bit more complex.

The Information Officers at Puke Ariki museum, all keep an eye for long words. If you look at your phone when typing a text and using predictive mode, you will see that the more times you need to hits the keys for letters, the fewer options there are for words. So getting a long word means that the robots have to move to precisely the correct order of cylinders, to get the word. Given their path is upset or randomised by bumping into eachother, this means that randomness must interact with the programmed actions of forward, backwards, turn left, turn right.

It has amazed me that such a simple set of commands would generate words let along string a number together to make a strange kind of poetry. The orginal intention was to incorporate a fractal or Julia set into the movement commands, but given text and sentences were generated with such simple instructions, things were left as they were. If we do incorporate fractal or Julia set trajectories, it will be for another iteration of the project.

While six or seven letter words are relatively uncommon, truly outstanding have been two eight letter words output in the first two weeks of exhibition. The words are 'glimpsed' and 'infidels'. Here are some examples of the generated word lists.

1.
red
sigh
is
shy

2.
knit
bawdy
bike
epic

3.
paler
kids
ply
blase
pun
lunch

4.
no
lag
chess
pi
rips
like
jaded
held
set

5.
dad
my
map
is
pup

6.
nick
scow
is
so
oh