Everyone Wants to Help a Robot

Who would have thought that all it takes to show the real quality of people would be a simple robot. The Tweenbots is little friendly looking robots, that can only go forward in a straight line, so in order to get to its destination it requires the help of the mighty humans to help it on its way.

Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal.

The results were unexpected. Over the course of the following months, throughout numerous missions, the Tweenbots were successful in rolling from their start point to their far-away destination assisted only by strangers. Every time the robot got caught under a park bench, ground futilely against a curb, or became trapped in a pothole, some passerby would always rescue it and send it toward its goal. Never once was a Tweenbot lost or damaged. Often, people would ignore the instructions to aim the Tweenbot in the "right" direction, if that direction meant sending the robot into a perilous situation. One man turned the robot back in the direction from which it had just come, saying out loud to the Tweenbot, "You can't go that way, it's toward the road."

Take a look at this wonderful movie of a Tweenbots journey through the human world. And lets remind ourselves that the world is wonderful place filled with friendly people.

Mission 1: Get from the Northeast to the Southwest Corner of Washington Square Park / time: 42 minutes / number of people who intervened: 29

This project was created by Kacie Kinzer, an art student of Tisch School of the Arts as an experiment into human nature. And, there will be more friendly robots coming in the future, so if you see one - give it a helping hand.

(via Tweenbots)