Abstract
Ollie is a blimp-based autonomous and ambient robot that dwells in human habitats. Ollie is equipped to demonstrate humor and patterns of delicate emotions. Ollie is observant, often flying in a manner suggesting curiosity for the world around him. Ollie reacts to voices by excitedly flapping his wings, communicating his friendliness and eagerness to be noticed. Ollie is often socially awkward and unobtrusive. Ollie wants to know about humans and yearns for their attention. Ollie is a performer.
Robotics increasingly pervade our everyday lives. Machine-human interaction has the potential to be both poetic and ubiquitous. Ollie, the autonomous robotic blimp, is a demonstration of the creative capabilities of robots as inhabitants of our society, breaking the stereotype of the servile robot. The technology behind Ollie is open source and available to artists, Do-it-yourself enthusiasts and students under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License to further encourage creative computing and collaboration.
Artist
Ollie is developed by Pritika Nilaratna.
Pritika Nilaratna is a creative technologist and interaction designer based in New York City. She graduated with BFA in Design & Technology at Parsons The New School for Design. Nilaratna’s work as a designer is motivated by humor, critique and social intervention in and through technology. She enjoys web and mobile user experience, interactive design installations and glistening, brilliant blue jewels.
May 16th, 2011 at 1:49 AM
???,???,???I like it!
May 17th, 2011 at 9:26 AM
Who knew a intelligent mylar balloon could be so cute!
May 18th, 2011 at 3:48 PM
[...] around and tries to get attention from people. He is observant and reacts to voices by “excitedly flapping his wings. Ollie is meant to be friendly and eager to be noticed, but also unobtrusive–you could just [...]
May 18th, 2011 at 10:52 PM
[...] floats around and tries to get attention from people. He is observant and reacts to voices by "excitedly flapping his wings. Ollie is meant to be friendly and eager to be noticed, but also unobtrusive–you could just just [...]
May 22nd, 2011 at 1:58 PM
[...] floats around and tries to get attention from people. He is observant and reacts to voices by "excitedly flapping his wings. Ollie is meant to be friendly and eager to be noticed, but also unobtrusive–you could just push [...]
May 25th, 2011 at 10:12 AM
Good initiative, although, not very impressive, compared to what has already been done in Germany.
http://wn.com/Festo__SmartBird
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_citFkSNtk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPGgl5VH5go
May 31st, 2011 at 12:04 AM
Festo is great for blimp design and motion. Ollie is great for human-machine interaction.
June 3rd, 2011 at 10:14 PM
“Say Hello to Ollie, the Friendly Robot That You Can Make Yourself
It’s good on a weekend to step back from the everyday and find little inspirations around us. Completely far from politics, revolutions and today’s everyday struggles, this morning I came across “Ollie”, the little robot that is a creative project encouraging everyone to make their own flying, socially awkward robot. “
June 9th, 2011 at 9:20 AM
Yeah, Festo is a different animal altogether (sorry for the pun). It is not really interactive at all like Ollie is, although its motion is impressive.
Nice project! I think I may build one as a project someday.