Tweenbots

April 13, 2009 - Posted by Josh

Tweenbots are are simple robots bearing a flag with their destinations. Random humans they encounter in the street have to pick them up and aim them in the right direction. Kacie Kinzer built this small motorized vehicle that looked like a happy little robot, called a tweenbot. It could only move forward. Attached to the robot was a flag that asked humans to help steer it from one corner of Washington Square Park to the opposite corner.

The results were unexpected. Over the course of the following months, throughout numerous missions, the Tweenbots were successful in rolling from their start point to their far-away destination assisted only by strangers. Every time the robot got caught under a park bench, ground futilely against a curb, or became trapped in a pothole, some passerby would always rescue it and send it toward its goal. Never once was a Tweenbot lost or damaged. Often, people would ignore the instructions to aim the Tweenbot in the “right” direction, if that direction meant sending the robot into a perilous situation. One man turned the robot back in the direction from which it had just come, saying out loud to the Tweenbot, "You can’t go that way, it’s toward the road.”

(via Levi, Darian, Boing Boing & tweenbots)

This entry was posted on Monday, April 13th, 2009 at 19:31 and is filed under Scribble. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Comments

  1. Nova says:

    Hey Josh, I just wanted to say I love the locations that you post and they way many of them feel so dreamlike. Your captions suit them well and I just wanted to you know that it made me happy to see somebody else who cares about some of the sorts of things that I do. Especially that post about playtime that you made =D

    I just turned 20 a few days ago and though I guess I can no longer call myself a teenager, I still find that I’m having the most fun when every so often I take a break to just play in a playground with friends or go for a swim at the beach.

    ... on Monday, April 13, 2009 @ 21:28 CET
  2. Josh says:

    Thanks Nova <3

    ... on Monday, April 13, 2009 @ 21:30 CET
  3. Alex Hawk says:

    This is too incredibly cute for words. I love it! :) That Tweenbot is my new wallpaper. :)

    ... on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 @ 08:01 CET
  4. Levi says:

    These things are just so irresistible! The harmless cardboard (instead of metal) and the cute smiley face is just too cute not to love. I want.

    ... on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 @ 11:22 CET

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