Just to put the cherry on the cake that was my week in San Francisco, I went across to Pier 9, this afternoon, to catch up with David Thomasson and visit the robotics laboratory belonging to Autodesk’s Office of the CTO.
David and team are working on some really interesting projects. The first will be unveiled at AU 2015 and investigates the potential for humans and robots to build things together that neither group could on their own.
Visitors to the exhibit at AU will have tasks to perform in conjunction with robots – with these tasks being coordinated centrally and communicated via wearable technology – leading to the construction of a wooden structure made out of unique, custom-built elements.
The Lab is also working on a really cool collaboration with Dutch designer Joris Laaram. You may have seen it in the press: sets of robots will essentially “3D print” a welded metal bridge across a river in Amsterdam.
A member of the OCTO team on Pier 9, Evan Atherton, also wrote and directed the fun short “Artoo in Love”. It was nice to meet him in person.
You’ll notice the pink R2 unit in the below photo of the lab, alongside some pretty serious bots.
All in all a great way to wrap up the week. Now I just have my email mountain to work through while heading back towards the physical Alps!
