Andy Flessas is a robot animator who has transferred his skills and background in film and computer animation onto robotics. He's known for his RoboScreen designs, which he's been working on for well over a decade. These multipurpose screens have travelled the world, helping international musicians enhance the entertainment factor in their shows.
Robot animator Andy Flessas, aka andyRobot, is an expert in manufactured fun. You might describe him as a robot whisperer who knows all the ins and outs of his mechanical charges. And having provided his RoboScreens to the likes of Bon Jovi, DeadMau5 and J-pop band Kis-My-Ft2, there's no doubt the man knows how to make a concert rock.
is giving a piece of themselves every night. For me, it's about enhancing the popstar. I try not to make it like a robot show," Flessas told WIRED.co.uk. "I'm manufacturing fun for the audience and allowing the artist to give more of themselves."
Manufacturing Fun
Flessas' RoboScreens are essentially displays attached to ABB arm robots. It's an invention that creates a six-axis movement, making it seem as though you're looking through a kaleidoscope as multiple robotic arms move in sync, with one screen attached to each arm. What's more, the RoboScreens are multipurpose, doubling up as steps and rotating platforms.
"There seem to be screens everywhere," Flessas tells us. "So I roboticised what I think is the most common type of electronics in everyone's lives."
When Flessas unveiled his designs aboard smart ship Quantum of the Seas' maiden voyage, it was easy to see why they are proving popular in the showbiz world. The RoboScreens' performances possess a fluidity of motion often lacking in industrial robots like the ABB. So what's the secret behind this movement?
As a computer animator and roboticist, Flessas knows both disciplines well. What makes his RoboScreens different, however, is the way in which he applies computer animation techniques to robotics. "Animators are going to make robots move," he says. "Forward kinematics used by factory robots don't capture the undulations.
We've applied inverse kinematics -- what they call character rigs in movies. This enables us to animate the robots, move them like we want, like animated characters." "We're adding the fourth dimension, which is time," he says, explaining that this is what animators attribute to a still image to give it motion. Due to their training, animators understand movement, and Flessas adds that in the near future, they'll most likely be more of them in manufacturing.
While growing up in the US, Flessas was something of a child prodigy. By the time he was 19, he'd already graduated and set up his own animation studio. "If my mum hadn't given me a computer when I was 13, I probably would've ended up homeless," he jokes. "I never left my bedroom after that. I started animating." Encouraging all his friends to get involved, Flessas noted that they'd all gone on to become animators, working on films like Shrek and
Spider-Man.
Engineers vs Computer Animators
Flessas first got interested in robotics when ABB Robotics hired him to animate something on their robot installation software back in 1995. Witnessing a demo of a giant robot moving perfectly at 100mph grabbed his interest. "I was so fascinated by the precision that I got into robots," he comments.
In 2000, Flessas attended ABB's training school in Detroit and was certified as a roboticist. And while he remained intrigued by the nuts and bolts of robotics, Flessas always knew that something was amiss. "Engineers think in terms of bolts, production, cars etc, whereas artists and animators think flowers, movement, wind particles," says Flessas. Understanding the need to forge a connection between humans and machines, Flessas left ABB's training school to go on to design "Robot Animator" -- the software that lets him "breathe life into robots," and gives his RoboScreens the same fluidity that animated film characters possess.
Flessas already has big plans for his RoboScreens. He's already introduced "Omnitron", which is an omni-directional video delivering content in every direction. Flessas has also experimented with smaller versions of his RoboScreens, equipped with GoPro cameras that could be incorporated in the gaming industry.
He also hopes that the screens would inaugurate different viewing experiences in cinemas. "I'm thinking of cinemas where the screens actually move. Imagine a scene where two characters are fighting, and when they jump apart, the screens also separate," he says.
Amplifying human ability with robotics
Flessas might be intent on increasing the fun factor for the audiences of entertainers. However, at the core of his practice, there's a deep respect for equilibrium between humans and machines, optimistic experimentation, and pedagogy.
Having spent the best part of ten years working on his Robot Animator software, Flessas noted that he wanted to add something positive to planet Earth and "make something in honour of the big creation". "You read a lot in the press about robots taking people's jobs, but I think that the big explosion in robotics is going to be amplifying human ability. It's important for robots to be integrated into human life and to make us better," he asserts.
Although Flessas acknowledged the more dystopian sides to robotics, and the "bad guys", who'd want to exploit them for their own means, he remained optimistic. "We have to protect the robots from bad guys -- there has to be a counter-movement. Every human being has a talent, and in the future, it'll be about what we teach robots. We have to teach them good things, not bad things" -- a goal, which he hopes his son, who he's dubbed "Andy2.0" will carry on into the future.
AndyRobot is currently working with internationally reknowned musician Deadmau5 and will be installing his RoboScreens on four more of the Royal Carribean's cruise ships. In the future, he has plans to make staircases that assemble and disassemble themselves in casinos, and hopes to showcase his own robot girl band around the world.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
