Animated Robotic Sculptures: Using SMA Motion Display to Create Lifelike Movements

Abstract

This paper describes four animated robotic sculptures that are characterized by their use of shape-memory alloy motion display technologies to express lifelike movements, such as rustling leaves or squirming tentacles. These works of art combine plant and animal motifs with robotics to give their audience a sense of the objects being alive through their lifelike movements. These projects attempt to explore what it means to feel alive. They express the grotesqueness and scariness as well as the beauty of the mystery of life and living things.