projects>theswarmgarden
The Swarm Garden
2023-2024
* Researcher
* Software development
* Interaction design
* Hardware assembly
* Creative direction
* Graphic design
As a senior thesis researcher @ the Self-Organizing Swarms & Robotics Lab (SSR Lab), I designed, fabricated, and programmed novel human-swarm interactions in application to a self-adaptive, robotic architectural display. The project culminated in a public exhibition at Princeton’s Lewis Center for the Arts on April 9, 2024.
The Swarm Garden demonstrates an experimental, nature-inspired interactive architecture exhibit where 36 robotic flower modules bloom in response to human presence and can exhibit complex long-range and real-time responses through self-organization. Each module exploits the bistability of confinement – or the ability for a flexible sheet to buckle into flower-like patterns when pulled through a ring. Through direct interaction with the flower modules’ sensors and a wearable device for capturing dance gestures and movement, visitors are empowered to discover emergent behaviors in the swarm through various modalities. We envision futures where dancers, artists, and performers can utilize architectural swarms like The Swarm Garden as extensions of their artistic works and employ swarm intelligence to create embodied experiences with technology. The Swarm Garden serves as a beacon for us to speculate a joyous future of coexistence between humans, machines, and nature through artistic and architectural robotic swarm applications.
**The Swarm Garden was awarded Outstanding Presentation at Princeton Research Day 2024. A journal publication is in production and the team has displayed latest work at ICRA@40 and DARS2024.**
Made in collaboration with Yenet Tafesse, Merihan Alhafnawi, Radhika Nagpal, Lucia Stein-Montalvo, Vicky Chow, Sigrid Adriaenssens, and Azi Jones.
The Swarm Garden demonstrates an experimental, nature-inspired interactive architecture exhibit where 36 robotic flower modules bloom in response to human presence and can exhibit complex long-range and real-time responses through self-organization. Each module exploits the bistability of confinement – or the ability for a flexible sheet to buckle into flower-like patterns when pulled through a ring. Through direct interaction with the flower modules’ sensors and a wearable device for capturing dance gestures and movement, visitors are empowered to discover emergent behaviors in the swarm through various modalities. We envision futures where dancers, artists, and performers can utilize architectural swarms like The Swarm Garden as extensions of their artistic works and employ swarm intelligence to create embodied experiences with technology. The Swarm Garden serves as a beacon for us to speculate a joyous future of coexistence between humans, machines, and nature through artistic and architectural robotic swarm applications.
**The Swarm Garden was awarded Outstanding Presentation at Princeton Research Day 2024. A journal publication is in production and the team has displayed latest work at ICRA@40 and DARS2024.**
Made in collaboration with Yenet Tafesse, Merihan Alhafnawi, Radhika Nagpal, Lucia Stein-Montalvo, Vicky Chow, Sigrid Adriaenssens, and Azi Jones.