Why robotic pets?
We want to open up and explore the design-space in everyday robotics and rethink the role of robots. GlowBots is a robotic design is based on a previous study where we interviewed owners of rather unusual pets such as snakes, spiders and lizards. We have then tried to transfer some of the specific qualities found in their interaction and relationships with their pets to explore the design-space in everyday robotics. GlowBots is the first proof-of-concept robotic design implementation that came as a direct result from this study.
Affective Robotics
Robots are usually either a machine that should do something useful and therefore a dull piece of metal or a machine that tries to look like organic being. We wanted to go beyond that pattern and explore what happened if we created a robot that can express emotions on it's own terms - that can communicate with other beings on a more abstract level. We created a robot that could entice an aesthetic experience outside the domains of imitations.
