The Evening of ... the Robot
An Evening of ... at DEAF96, with Red Whittaker and Cell.
Evening of.. the Robot
Rotterdam robot Cell demonstrated his capabilities and limitations in an environment that was specially created for this purpose in Lantaren 1. Its creator and mentor Willem Hienekamp explained why Cell's behavior was not quite perfect, emphasizing that Cell's relative unsuccessfulness contributes strongly to the level of involvement that we as audience feel towards his endeavors.
This ambiance was in sharp contrast with the presentation by American researcher and robot constructor Red Whittaker from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg, (USA). Whittaker focuses on 'hard and efficient' robots, practically independently functioning machines that can be deployed for instance inside volcanoes or on other planets within our solar system. In Whittaker's work failure or mediocre performance is not an option.
