Chitobot
chi·to·bot
Designing technology with a perishable skin
Details: Robotics • Materials Science • Arduino • Living Machines
Client: Hyundai Motor Group ~ Hyundai Future Experience Research Fellowship 2022
Date: 2022
Team: Paula Gaetano Adi • Manini Banerjee
When we design technology, we often think of those made with shiny metal and gears powered by electricity. What if our technology was made out of skin with a programmed death date?
The Chitobot explores robotics made of material sourced from its location of deployment - this way, when the robot breaks down, it leaves a minimal trace. The materials extracted from a certain location are returned back to where they came from. In this case the machine’s skin was biologized, it is greener during its lifetime, and generates less waste at the end of its lifecycle.
This is a system that is destined to break down resembling an organism-like vulnerability - Moving away from ideas of planned obsolescence and working with embracing decay as a natural process.
This system begins to look compelling once we consider programming degradation at the rate of human innovation.
The Chitobot can be deployed on any shore-side. Since it is grown from locally found materials, this robotic holobiont can disintegrate without leaving dents in the shore-side ecosystem.
The Chitobot is a 6 legged hexapod robot made out of: 18 servo motors, an Arduino mega 25-60 microprocessor, and 14 laser cut and treated Chitin - Sodium Alginate biocomposite parts.
1) DEPLOY: The Chitobot can be deployed on any shore side.
2) FIND: Once the Chitobot is deployed it searches for dead organisms with chitin using ML
3) COLLECT: Once found, the Chitobot collects it onto its carapace using it’s two front limbs.
4+5) GROW + REPRODUCE: The Chitobot processes collected materials into a paste to grow its own armor + reproduction. |
This perpetuates an autopoietic system - one that possesses the potential for surprising change without being bound to any spatial or temporal capabilities.
The Chitobot’s goal is to embrace the circularity of life through embodying its dead ancestors into a new ‘life’. Not only extending the life cycle of the deceased material, but also creating a new life form while developing rituals of life creation in that process. Through its lifetime, the Chitobot aims for self growth and reproduction while aiming to thrive in symbiogenesis within its biome.
The conceptual avenue of this work was influenced by the Pachygrapusus - a family of small shore crabs. These are shore-side crabs that have genetic data suggesting they are polyphyletic. The idea for collecting materials with chitin traces was derived from the evolutionary pattern of these Pachygrapusus. Unique organisms are derived from a diverse family of ancestors gets more and more heterogeneous as generations go by.
The material innovations in this project were largely influenced by Horse Shoe Crabs. A dead Atlantic Horseshoe Crab (Limulus Polyphemus) was found and studied. This research revealed that the dome-like horseshoe crab is very efficient and environmentally resilient for survival. Moreover, the material distribution throughout their dome features helicoid arrangement of the chitin molecules - making these crabs tremendously robust.
The shore side material inspector robot, Chitobot; 6 legged hexapod robot made out of 18 servo motors, an Arduino mega 25-60 microprocessor, and 14 laser cut and treated Chitin - Sodium Alginate biocomposite parts
- The Chitobot was made possible through the support of Hyundai Motor Group and RISD Nature Lab along with my mentors: Paula Gaetano-Adi, Fletcher Bach, Felipe Santos Shibuya, Jieun Bae, Dianne Kim and Jacob Sussman.
Chitobot displayed: Sustainable Futures, Co-creating with Nature | Ehibited Artist 2022