An Italian artist has imagined a robot whose properties are light years away from those we usually attribute to this kind of machine. At first glance, the ShyBot has no meaning, no purpose, no destiny, but there is still a reason for its existence.
The main feature of this quadripod robot built by Italian artist Norma Jeane is puzzling. Indeed, the ShyBot is very shy as its name suggests. Amazing for a machine to feel shy, isn’t it? In reality, the robot was programmed to completely avoid contact with human beings.
The artist who collaborated with the Codame agency specializing in the mixture of art and technology explains what motivated him in the development of the ShyBot:
“Shyness is considered a behavior intrinsically linked to the human condition — no animal, no machine can be shy. It is said that shyness is a reflection of our own conscience, of our uncertainty concerning what we represent in our relationship to a world itself made up of uncertain beings.remarks taken from a press release from the Codame agency.
The ShyBot is equipped with a camera that broadcasts its route in real time in video (streaming) in a gallery located in Los Angeles (United States). Following this robot is a matter of curiosity allowing us to imagine its point of view and therefore its behavior.
Left to its own devices in the Coachella desert (south of California), the ShyBot is programmed to avoid all contact, and not just that of humans. Indeed, even in the case of an encounter with a drone, the robot flees!
The robots were created by Man to serve Man, which amounts to saying that this ShyBot is a sacred philosophical paradox!
Here is the ShyBot in action:
Sources: Wired – CNET – Numérama