After teaching robotics every day for the past four weeks you’d think the last thing I’d want is to imagine a room full of industrial robots conducting a “battle of the bands” versus a human that goes a bit “metal.” This isn’t a cautionary tale. Personally I know how limited our robot companions are and I am also driven by my belief that these things are expressions of our humanity. So if you think we’re all degenerates with minimal self-redeeming value, than you should be greatly concern with these products of our imagination. But if you believe that we are capable of amazing good, then it’ll be the same mix of good and not-so-good that we already experience with each other. 

Watching the video, I was curious how much of the playing in the video was done by these robots and how much was just a video “performance” like the “guitar girls” in the background of Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love” video. The ending is obviously lots of video “magic,” but that doesn’t mean the machines did record their parts. Here’s what the artist wrote: “Robots rock, they were fun to work with. My favorite is the robotic drummer. More work to be done, and maybe I could play with them live. Stay tuned :).” What do you think? Was it real or staged? Enjoy your Labor Day weekend. Just remember, robots don’t need to take time off.