Photograph by Syuzi Pakhchyan and Sebastian Bettencourt
Escape of the Blubber Bots
Jed Berk’s autonomous blimps are on the move.
BERK’S BLUBBER BOTS KEEP TRYING to escape. During an exhibit in an empty cold-storage space, one wandered out the front door never to be seen again. At a recent workshop in Los Angeles, another made a slow break for the back stairs.
These elusive Blubber Bot entities are autonomous robotic blimps. Roughly 3 feet long, their helium-filled mylar balloon bodies are propelled by ultralight motorized fans. Simple light sensors send them in the direction of the brightest light source in view, and a set of bump ...
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