“The Robotic Chair”in the short film Robotic Chair by Peter Lynch. Raffaello D’Andrea, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell University, has created a chair in conjunction with Canadian artist Max Dean that can crumple itself into a disjointed pile of wood and then reassemble itself. Dean came up with the vision and D’Andrea, who advises the university’s robot teams, designed it. Another Canadian artist and a former student of D’Andrea’s then helped them build it.
“It has no utilitarian value,” D’Andrea said in a prepared statement. “It is an art piece.”
The chair contains 14 motors, two gearboxes and other parts. Algorithms help the parts that can move on the robot find its missing parts.
The Robotic Chair seat houses a custom robot charged with the ambitious task of locating the scattered parts (legs and back), reassembling itself, then restoring itself to its former chair status. The chair acts autonomously guided by an overhead vision system and is not dependent on viewer presence or interaction to perform. The Robotic Chair is a collaborative project by artist Max Dean, professor/entrepreneur Raffaello D’Andrea and artist/industrial designer Matt Donovan
