WORLD
Garden lighting just got frightening! Spider-like robot lamps follow people to make sure they can see where they're going
Baku, March 4 (AZERTAC). Forget solar-powered lamps, the latest way to light up your garden is with robotic lanterns which walk, flash, and 'dance.'
They can even move out of the way if someone walks near them and be programmed to follow you around so you’re never in darkness.
The Toro-bots were built by Tokyo-based artist Alvaro Cassinelli and are made using PhantomX quadrupeds fitted with Japanese-style lights.
The Toro-bots, pictured, were built by Tokyo-based Professor Alvaro Cassinelli. He fitted Japanese-style lanterns to the top of PhantomX quadrupeds. These lamps can be controlled collectively, or individually, using an iPad. They walk, flash their lights and can be made to 'dance'
The lamps can be controlled collectively, or individually, using an iPad and they were designed for a ‘generative garden’ exhibition at the French Institute of Culture in Tokyo: Digital Shock.
The quadrupeds used in Casinelli’s robots were made by Illinois-based Trossen Robotics and cost $949.95 (£568) each.
Each of Casinelli's lamps have a ‘personality’ and can sense their surroundings using infrared rangefinders.
They then communicate with a central computer using an Xbee network, which can be controlled by an iPad, or other wireless network.
The lamps are also fitted with infrared blinking LEDs and a 120Hz IR camera that can scan the garden and are used to track the robots.