Catie Cuan is an entrepreneur, engineer and artist working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, human-robot interaction and art. She received her PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and is currently an assistant professor at the New York Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on the design of robotic systems that can collaborate with humans in a natural and expressive way.
One of her best-known works is TIME CAPSULE, an eight-hour duet she made with an industrial robotic arm in 2018. The robotic arm, called UR5, was programmed by Cuan so that it could move autonomously and respond to his presence. The work explored the possibilities of communication and relationship between a person and a machine, as well as the ethical and social implications of automation.
Cuan was inspired by her own experience as a choreographer and engineer, and by the history of industrial robotics, which began in the 1950s with the first programmable robot, Unimate. The performance was presented at the Currents New Media arts and technology festival in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and was streamed live on the internet. Cuan interacted with the robotic arm in a variety of ways, from playfulness to conflict, curiosity to intimacy.
TIME CAPSULE was a pioneering project that showed the creative potential of collaborative robotics, a branch of robotics based on the sharing of space and tasks between humans and robots. Collaborative robotic arms, such as UR5, are able to adapt to different environments and applications, and to work safely alongside people. They are used in industry as well as in education, healthcare, entertainment and the arts.
Cuan has continued to explore human-robot interaction in other projects, such as OUT OF ISOLATION, a series of videos documenting his encounters with robots during the COVID-19 pandemic, or ROBOTIC FUTURES, a workshop that invites the public to imagine and design possible scenarios with robots. Its aim is to create experiences that question the limits between the human and the artificial, and to generate reflection and dialogue on the future of coexistence with machines.
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