Telerobotics and Robots

          Recently in class we learned about telerobotics. Telerobotics is an area of robotics concerned with the control of robots from a distance, mainly using wireless connections or the Internet. When I think of telerobotics several things come to mind: doctors that use robots for surgery, any type of drone for the military, or maybe even a RC car. All three of these things have something in common, that they are controlled by a human from a distance. The purpose of telerobotics is to use machinery to do things that humans can't do, especially that close. Robots are much more precise than we are and takes away the human element of emotion and an actual living thing. When I was younger I was obsessed with RC cars. For some reason, being able to drive a little car using a controller was so fascinating to me. I would test the limits of the range of frequency and see how far the car can go until it loses connection. It wasn't until now that I realized that this type of activity is related to and part of telerobotics.
          Speaking of robots, we see robots now as a form of entertainment as well as function. In the video below, a man created a robot that drives around and finds things to play drums on. It then samples what it plays, and plays to the samples.

          The robot actually creates music with a solid rhythm and catchy beat. I find the creativity and function of this robot to be extremely interesting. This robot relates to one of my previous posts of sampling, except it's a robot that does the sampling not a human! Also, this isn't necessarily telerobotics since it was programmed to do this, but, I believe it exemplifies algorithmic art since it was created to perform a set of instructions that create music (a form of art in my opinion). What surprises me about this video is how well the robot makes beats. Even the sounds created by the robot not meant to be part of the beat adds to the song, the moving of the sensor, the beeping noises, the moving treadmill tracks, almost like an interlude between beats. In other videos by the same username, he plays his guitar and piano with the robot and it actually sounds really well and the robot even records the guitar or piano playing too.