I have nearly completed my proposal for the Team Walking Simulator project. It is an interactive art piece that encourages six or more players to work together to make the robotic ant walk on the treadmill sphere.
Six or more players collaborate to make the robotic ant walk along the rotating sphere.
This idea came from several different projects but was mostly inspired by a random research project I stumbled upon. In this project, field researchers built a tiny air cushioned spherical treadmill for real ants in the dessert to study their navigation, walking speed, and behavior. I very much like the idea of encouraging a group of people or a “swarm” of people collaborating to control one ant. The ant is a symbol of team work and preparation, and I believe a fitting subject for such an intense collaborative art piece.
Side view of Team Walking Simulator project concept
Additionally, I have been really enjoying thinking about the user interaction and what kind of technology I can put “under the hood.” Each control rod would be an analog signal that needs to be converted to digital for controlling the servos in the ant. Eighteen analog inputs converted to digital is a lot of information. I am considering using 18 ADCs which are serialized into six different channels and are then unpacked by an FPGA which then spits out the 18 servo PWM signals. I want the user to feel an almost analog real time connection to their leg, so stacking 18 signals into one long serial connection would be really slow and prone to error.
After I submit my proposal, I wont know until April if I get any funding to help me build it. If I had the space and some cash, I could probably build it anyway, but I don’t have either right now.
Life presents challenges and currently I am faced with an uncomfortable reality that I may not be able to sustain my life in San Francisco much longer. It has been a great run and it is a great town, but money isn’t adding up, and I’ve been dreaming of living near more nature for a long time. I am starting to look into re-locating to a smaller city and finding local work. It is a daunting task and I am reluctant to make a decision.
On the bright side, if I do re-locate and get back into a stable economic situation, then I can always return to this project at a later date. I have discovered that these grant applications actually force you to do good work for yourself and methodically articulate every step of your ideas. I was prone to that anyway, but now I can share the process with application reviewer.