Bowtie

Can a robot designed to assist humans in their everyday lives be trained to become an actor?

Working in collaboration with the Personal Robotics Laboratory at CMU’s Robotics Institute, Bowtie is helping fulfill HERB’s (Home Exploring Robotic Butler) dream of becoming an actor.  On April 30^th, HERB will act in a series of short plays by the playwright David Ives.

Bowtie will design a flexible and robust interface that enables his operators to manipulate various parameters of HERB’s movement in real time to improvise and fine-tune his performance.

Bowtie will be working closely with director Sam French to realize his directorial vision by iteratively improving HERB’s interface in the months leading up to the performance.

The team will create animations that transform HERB into different characters through subtle changes in movement and body language.

Team Members: Rachina Ahuja, Kwong Fai (Jon) Lew, Ruobing (Robin) Li, Mac Lotze, Juan Uribe, Jiahao (Simon) Xia, Xiaoyi Zhang

Project Instructors: Shirley Saldamarco,  Mike Christel