Created by Nikolas Schmid-Pfähler and Carolin Liebl, Vincent & Emily are two self-willed robots who are in a bizarre conflict between each other and their surroundings. The robots are designed to explore solitude of a partner relationship and their impulses. Mimicking humans, using sounds and gestures, the robots have speakers motions controlled by their motors. In addition, the creatures capture sounds and movements via sensors and react on those signals with own expressions.
Just like in each human relationship it comes to misunderstandings: If Vincent sends positive signals by up and down movements, it is possible that Emily interprets even those signals as negative. Disagreement is preprogrammed. The unpredictable interaction and interplay between Vincent and Emily, caused by their tense relationship, trigger the viewer’s individual projections. Intuitively he will be searching for similarities to particular patterns of human behavior.
The movement of the robots is realized by a pulling system, consisting of three motors whose rotation is transformed into a linear motion via gear wheels and gear racks. Due to the elasticity of the moving metal shafts, the actions of the couple become at the same time smoother and increasingly unpredictable, which results in an additional momentum of its own and a lightness and ease within their interactions.
Vincent & Emily were built using Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Accelerometer, Stepper, Servo, Camera, Microphone, IR-LED. Software includes Linux Arch, Python and OpenCV.
