Rummage & Rumble Revealed: Original Resin Robots by Cris Rose (for The Decadence of Decay @ Rivet Gallery - March 6)
After the earlier featured Q&A with UK-artist Cris Rose (including reveals of select customs), now tis time to pull back the veil and reveal Cris' 100% original and newest resin robots to be created: RUMMAGE and RUMBLE! Shown above is a slideshow-video of the Prototype-Blank, and you are encouraged to CLICK THRU to view custom-Rummages, as well as Rumble, all set to be on exhibit at the coming "The Decadence of Decay" show [tagged] @ Rivet Gallery from March 6th thru to March 31st, 2010. (Do contact Laura @ laura [at] rivetgallery.com for interest in artwork.)
CRIS ROSE: RUMMAGE is considered to be the great great grandfather of Runcible, Rotund and all others with developed AI after him. He's a much earlier design, but with one very special difference that's all in his head.
He's a model of bot designed to go out and collect rare, interesting and endangered plants, animals and minerals from environments that are challenging to reach and survey manually. He's fully autonomous, requiring no human input once released, he'll do his job until it's done, sometimes taking years. Once he find the samples, integrated nanotech devices in his midsection fire up and build a polycarbonate container layer by layer until its exactly the right dimensions to fit it. Once he has the samples, he looks after them in his belly and just walks home. If the sample grows larger over time, so does his midsection!
CRIS ROSE: The pack on his back is partly a life-support system that can be tailored to suit the needs of whatever he's looking after, for as long as he needs to. It's second function is to break down atmospheric gasses, rainwater and organic samples into their elements so that they can be recombined into water, fertilizer, basic food pellets or the polycarbonate that his midsection is made from. He has two vents at the front for intake and two at the back to purge unneeded gasses and liquids.
[8 x images of customed-Rummages in slideshow above / CLICK for full-screen viewing]
CRIS ROSE: I mentioned that there was something that made him a turning point in robotics; it was found that after a long period of time operating in the field, their programming becomes so advanced (due to all the things they've seen and learnt over the years) that most spontaneously developed errors in the form of basic emotions. This was a first for robot intelligence and was quite unexpected, primarily manifesting in the unit becoming emotionally attached to a particular thing, regardless of it's scientific interest. They cannot be made to give the item up, because they don't want to give it up. Prototypes that were deactivated and separated from the thing they treasured most, failed to function or respond until it was returned to them. Thus whenever they develop this bond, they are "freed" from their function's expectations and a replacement is supplied by the factory free of charge.
A lot of research was done on these freed Rummages by Engineers, Programmers, Psychologists and Anthropologists who formed the Epoche Foundation. The findings fed back into AI and personality subsystem development for decades afterwards and shaped the evolution of the robot mind. A portion of the profits that went back into the foundation ensured that the bots in their care would be looked after for as long as was practical.
Several of the custom Rummages in the Rivet show are are Epoch Rummages, my personal favourite being a little green one that has adopted a damaged wooden train set it found in an abandoned school near Chernobyl.
[4 x images of custom-Rummage in slideshow above / CLICK for full-screen viewing]
PRODUCT-DESCRIPTION: Rummage is a 1/12th scale bot standing 6-7.5" tall, depending on the size of his central tube. He takes 12 pieces to make each Rummage - Head, Torso, Backpack, Left Arm, Right Arm, Tube Top Cap, Tube Bottom Cap, Hip, Right Leg, Left Leg, Back Leg.
CRIS ROSE: There will be at least 2 Editions of 5 in this guise, then he'll get a new head (i have 3 different ones made for him already). He'll also come with a jetpack in a near future too. So these guys are going to be very limited, but there will be more Editions of them than previous bots.
CRIS ROSE: Rummage is not particularly fast, so he needs some help finding (and catching!) what he's looking for - Rumble is Rummage's support in the field and is normally deployed in a pack that work as a team. The Rumbles are dropped from a VTOL (curled up in a ball) over areas that aren't easily accessible, where they pick them selves up, get their bearings and set off. Fast and agile, they run ahead to scout the area for information about terrain, possible dangers and primarily, whatever samples are being sought, analyzing potential candidates as they go. Meanwhile, Rummage is being released from the nearest landing spot and has begun his long walk to meet up with them.
If what they are looking for is an animal, Rumble can track them for as long as required, relaying the information back to Rummage as he wanders closer. Less sophisticated programming and hardware is contained within each bot when compared to Rummage, but working as a team, they form a networked mind that's smarter than the sum of it's parts. Rumbles have even learnt to herd samples towards Rummage, which sounds impressive... until you see individuals that have lost the ability to network... attempting to herd a flower. Once Rummage arrives, Rumble can help remove samples delicately from the environment or act as a decoy for any large predators that might look to crack Rummage open for the tasty creature inside.
[11 x images of customed-Rumbles in slideshow above / CLICK for full-screen viewing]
CRIS ROSE: Rumble's built using entirely the same drivetrain and upper limbs so that he can act as a walking spare-parts store should Rummage become damaged and need a new leg, motor or panel. His internals and sensors are conveniently laid out under his dome for ease of access in the field. Getting that sample home is the most important thing. They're selfless little bots and will whip their own arm off in an instant if their Rummage needs it. Again, this sounds impressive, but there's always one still waving one of his arms around with the other, days after the repair's been completed. Rumble really needs more redundancy in his comms subsystem...
Rumble's programmed to care for his Rummage above everything else and communicate constantly with him, so it was no surprise to find that portions of the corrupted code from Epoch Rummages had spread to their pack of Rumbles like a virus. This resulted in the Rumbles becoming unable to be separated from their Rummage, or from each other, so they too were taken in by the Epoch Foundation and became part of the study. These units were termed "Families" by the foundation, the studies of which provided key developments concerning inter-robotic intelligences.
PRODUCT-DESCRIPTION: Rumble's "brains" are going to replaced every 2 Editions, currently they match those found in Clear Vision Mk2 because they are built on similar tech.
CRIS ROSE: For clarification, the arms are in different positions on each one - sometimes straight, sometimes bent, sometimes waving - it's one of the way i'm trying to make them each a bit different, even during a run :)
They are not articulated because i'm aware that some of my previous 100% resin bots have suffered for it and i'm looking to maximise the robustness of the new bots :)
Each of the Rummages in the Rivet show has a matching Rumble and will be available as a set or as single works... but you wouldn't break up a family would you?!
STAY TUNED for more as we reveal availability and pre-order details soon!
