What will "A Midsummer Night's Dream" be when done by Robotkind?

A production of William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at Texas A&M University will feature both human and robotic performers. An AirRobot helicopter and six toy radio helicopters will serve as the production's fairies. The robotic performances are being used by the Texas A&M's Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering to learn more about how people react to the flying devices. "It's now possible for these unmanned aerial vehicles to be used for evacuation or for crowd control," says Texas A&M professor Robin Murphy. "But what's missing is understanding what makes a person trust or fear the robot." Over the course of the production's rehearsals and first performances, the researchers have documented several surprises, including that people thought the robots were smarter and tougher than they really are. Initially, people would handle the robots rather roughly, and launch them from different positions, resulting in damage. The actors also showed little fear of the robots, which Murphy says could cause people to become complacent and possible ignore a robot's instruction or walk into the rotor blades and be hurt. "The robots by themselves apparently aren't scary, so we need additional research to make them move like friendly hummingbirds or angry bees to get the desired effect," she says.

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credits: acm