Feral Robotic Dogs by Natalie Jeremijenko, exploits the aftermath of entertainment robotics, such as Aibo and Poo-chi. Now, there is not much left in the life of a robotic dog. Multinational corporations once provided consumers with a readymade, inexpensive high tech hardware platform, in order to distribute these robotics. Therefore, robotic dogs currently provide the most inexpensive source of compatible motors, actuation, and sensing mechanisms available from 15 to 200 US dollars. The aim of this project is to build a networked community of knowledgeable personals for achieving the common interest: refurbishing the old robotic dogs and give them new life. A result from this project was a series of pollution-sniffing guardian dogs of the city.
Not dissimilar to popular robot wars events, this project instead involves the release of ‘packs’ of feral robotic dogs that are designed and modified for release on sites of community interest, including public parks, school grounds and industrial sites. This creates mediagenic events, coverage, and discussion on contaminants in the local environments. Because the dogs display concentration information through their movement, the exploration engages people who may otherwise find the scientific information illegible.
For more details, please have a look their website: http://www.nyu.edu/projects/xdesign/feralrobots/
This case study illustrates three main topics of interest for everyone to think about;
1. ‘Technological’ Waste; compared with the other two case study, which are Dead Drop and Zero Dollar Laptop, this project starts off with a product that has more advanced technologies inside. People are not aware that creating e-waste does not only mean wasting materials, but also wasting good technologies that can be hugely beneficial.
2. Open source design; generating sharable and collective community for educating and exploring technological adaptations.
3. Environmental benefit; This project starts off with solving an environmental issue of e-waste and ending with tackling an another environmental issue: pollution in nature.
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