The robots are travelling up the country to the Manchester museum of science and industry, following the popular exhibition that took place in London last February.
The exhibition is now open for the public as part of the Manchester science festival, looking back over 500 years, we can explore how the power of robotics have developed over time and enhanced our lives in many ways that we don’t realise.
Part of the exhibition is 100 unique robots dating back to the 17th century. Mechanical monk to robots from science fiction and modern-day research labs, this exhibition will enable visitors to discover the cultural, historical and technological context of robots. The public will be able to interact with the 12 working robots on displays, from the humanoid news reader named Kodomoroid to an articulated iron manikin dating back to the 1500’s.
Visiting the robot exhibition is also a wonderful day out for families, with the specially created trail packed full of fun robotic themed activities such as the Robo boogie and starring in your own Explainer show.
Adam Flint, the creative content developer for the learning team said:
“I think it’s extremely important for children to learn about the modern technology of robots. I and my team have created an A4 booklet that allows families to keep their children engaged whilst learning about the robots. Throughout the booklet, there is a range of quizzes, games and challenges for children of all ages to get involved with.
Alongside this we also have activities running through the exhibition, for example, you can get involved with ‘dancing like a robot’, which is a programme that challenges you on different dance routines. We then hold a small showcase which allows you to create your own robot dance to then perform to family and friends. It really is something that we have pushed families and schools to get children involved with.”
Robots have been part of the modern culture since 1920, as the human obsession to recreate ourselves has been an everlasting phenomenon. Scientists and artists from all over the world have been on a quest to create a robot that interacts, learns from mistakes and has emotion like a human. The exhibition gives the public an insight into the world of robotics and how robots of the 21st century are more human-like than ever.
Ben Russel, the lead creator of the robot exhibition, spoke to Quays News and said:
“This exhibition has been a 5-year project as we started it in 2011. What we found from early on is that there is such a diverse range of robots to choose from, they dated back so far that we could have had a very contemporary robot exhibition or one from 250 years ago, things like medieval illuminated manuscripts.
As there are so many different robots we could have included, from your first ever cash machine to your automatic cars, those are all robots, however, we decided to concentrate on humanoids and how they have been developed over time. We have been re-inventing ourselves for so many years, I believe it’s an interesting story that hasn’t been told before.
We spoke to around 200 people and many different organisations from all over the world including places like Japan, America and most of Europe. A lot of the items have been made in basements and sheds and it’s just all about networking and finding out where the prototypes are.”
The robot exhibition is in Manchester up until April the 15th 2018 and will give you an insight into what it truly means to be a human in a robotic world.
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