By Kenji Saito | Representative Director
Please find a Japanese version of this report here.
We held our second AI-focused camp at Waseda University's Waseda Campus during Japan’s September long weekend. A total of nine participants, ranging from elementary to high school students, joined from the Tohoku and Kanto regions. In addition, former camp members who are now technical college and university students also participated as staff.
This time, we challenged ourselves to create a 'physically embodied generative AI.' We assembled microcontroller-controlled robots based on a commercially available dog-shaped robot kit (though they were skeletal-wise looked more like cats, so we decided to call them cat-shaped robots). The microcontrollers were equipped with Open Interpreter software, allowing us to build robots that responded to Japanese commands and moved as desired by the user.
On the second day, we explored the Waseda Campus, which is home to many museums such as the Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum and the Haruki Murakami Library. We also enjoyed Monjayaki in Tsukishima, which was close to our accommodation.
On the third day, our cat-shaped robots finally started moving. For example, when we asked them to 'move until you are 5 cm away from the wall,' they initially ran into the wall or failed repeatedly. However, as the robot cats rewrote their own code to adjust, they eventually responded perfectly to requests like 'back up until you are 20 cm away from the wall.' They can also tell you what they see through the camera attached to the front of their faces, and they even learned to communicate with us using Morse code. When a cat-shaped robot sends out an SOS, you just feel like you have to go help it!
We envisioned a future where we live with physical AI partners, shared our vision, and promised to continue playing with the cat-shaped robots. Although we spent a lot of time assembling the robots in this camp, next time we’ll have plenty of time to play with them.
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