Meet the Roboticist Making Machines Act Like Animals

When I pick up my iPhone and tell it do something, it feels natural. That's much of the appeal behind Apple devices — the intuitiveness of their interfaces makes it easy for us to translate human thoughts into the language of a machine. The machines in Madeline Gannon's latest project sit at the other extreme of this spectrum. The industrial robotic arms are hulking, blocky beasts that gleam in a most un-lifelike way. Their bodies are essentially one long arm, articulated to give the robots a range of motion no living creature could achieve. Gannon, a roboticist and artist, unveiled Manus at the World Economic Forum’s 2018 Annual Meeting of New Champions in Tianjin, China. The project is exploring ways to imbue machines with movements and behaviors that feel more natural to us, and which could help put humans at ease around our mechanical compatriots. Brought to life by custom-designed software and assisted by camera vision, the 10 machines move in a pattern of probing, inquisitive movements that feels both unsettling and familiar. As interlopers walk by, the bots’ focus jumps from person to person, heads bobbing and probing in every direction. If you didn't know better, you might say they were a pack of curious animals.