It’s hard to believe that a warm, cuddly puppy could ever be replaced by a cold, mechanical one; but all around the world, robotic pets are becoming people’s next best friend! Researchers are predicting that in the next ten years, the market is going to be filled with cute, affectionate, and responsive robotic pets. Just as digital technologies are changing how we interact with each other, they could do the same for how we interact with our animals; and robotic pets are showing that they can do wonders, not only in our personal homes, but also in the health industry through animal-assisted therapy. Paro, the sensor-studded interactive seal, became a close companion to nursing-home residents, improving their mood, alleviating loneliness and increasing their social engagement - all with his cute and calming mannerisms!

In this Studio, we’ll look at transforming our furry flesh-and-blood animal companions into affectionate electric-powered pets! We’ll explore how artificial intelligence, machine learning, and visual-object-space recognition are changing the way robots interact with people, express emotion, and engage with their environment. Students will learn how to engineer and program these little machines so that they work on social intelligence and address what people need from their pets: love, companionship, obedience, and dependence. Beyond these basics, the robotic pets might even be programmed to keep tabs on their owners or alert emergency workers of a sudden fall. But can a robotic kitten give its owners the same benefits as a real one? We will see!

Register here!

Focus Skills/Subjects/Technologies:

   Industrial Design

     Interaction Design

  Digital Fabrication (Laser-cutting, 3d Printing)

  Electronics

  Programming

  Robotics (Arduino)

  Sketching

  3d Modeling

Prerequisites:

• Enrolling students must be between the ages of 11 to 18 (middle and high school students)