THURSDAY 3 SEPTEMBER

Materials Science is set to define the next century of human history. Creating the perfect android, the exact artificial copy of a human being. Robots are already a dominant force in the world of entertainment: from animatronics in theme parks to toys.

The word “robot” comes from the Czech robota (“hard work”) and was introduced to the public by Czech playwright Karel Capek in a play in 2920. But humanity’s fascination for anthropomorphic machines started over 2.000 years ago. The first humanoid robot, something we would call and android today, was imagined by Leonardo da Vinci in 1495: it was a fully mechanical knight. In the 18th century the first mechanical toys are built: French inventor De Vaucanson creates one of the first robots with his mechanical duck, in 1739.

The father of modem robotics is William Grey Walter, who built a pair of three -wheeled robots in 1948: similar to tortoises, they were able to sense their battery was running dry and they could return to their charging station. Creating the perfect android, the exact artificial copy of a human being is the recurring dream of roboticists, but a lot still needs to be done. While we can build a convincing anthropomorphic robot, its realistic appearance creates the expectation that its behavior will also be human -like. But that requires a sophisticated grade of artificial intelligence, something that we can’t quite grasp yet. And another intriguing problem looms on the horizon: the Uncanny Valley, the sense of repulsion that we instinctively get as an android become more and more human -like in appearance, as postulated by Japanese roboticists Masahiro Mori in the 1970s. Nevertheless, wonderful examples of android have been successfully created throughout Europe. From the IIT in Genoa, Italy, comes iCub, an android that simulates the looks and the behavior of a three year old child. All the while looking and acting so cute as to be irresistible.

5 minutes break

From the earliest tool hewn from a piece of stone to state-of-the-art-bionics, the progress of human civilization is the progress of materials. Today more than ever, we need to use materials intelligently to meet the challenges of tomorrow. The film takes us on a journey where we meet the pioneers of material science and reveal their extraordinary discoveries transforming our world: From the edge of the Artic Circle, home to the first real -life cyborg with a bionic arm connected to his nervous system, to the changing climate of the Mediterranean, where a material with printed, natural protein promises energy-free clean water to farmers in Crete. We challenge the limits of materials technology, from building the first 3D -printed violin emulating the structure of wood, to blurring the line between living and non-living in an extraordinary demonstration of the concept of adaptive and self –healing materials that will help build our future world.

5 minutes break

Robots are already a dominant force in the world of entertainment: from animatronics in theme parks to toys, robotics turned into fun is already a well-established reality. Our journey starts from EuroDisney, where we venture behind the scenes to see the “robot factory that powers some of the fun offered to the park’s visitors. How do you develop and maintain machines that have to work safely, flawlessly, and resist the assaults of thousands of children every day? We then move on to single robots that show human -like features and are designed to interact and entertain. We start from the University of Bonn and its NimbRO-OP, a small child-like robot. Its unique feature is that the software it runs on is open source: anyone can download and alter the source code, on a Linux or Windows PC platform. Simplicity is also at the core of ECCE Robot, which we find in Geneva’s The Robot Studio. Its main structure is based upon cables and pulleys as opposed to traditional mechanical joints, so that the robot can more faithfully simulate the movements of human limbs, all the while entertaining its user with witty banter.

In Cornwall we meet Robothespian, an android developed to interact with a large number of people in public areas such as shopping malls or museums. Its software is web based and can be quickly adapted to different environments. Robotics turned to fun can also be useful for research purposes: take NAO, a small robot that starts in a real soccer tournament, the RoboCup. Its behaviour can be used to fine tune artificial intelligence taking cues from a real world environment that is very familiar to everyone. From France comes Reeti, a small “table robot” connected to Windows PC that can help a teacher make their class more enthralling, or turn a boring reception desk into a fun experience. Finally, from Zurich’s ETH comes ReZero, a BallBot class robot that moves over a single sphere, with unparalleled speed and elegance.

Looking at these robots one can’t help but think that one day, in the not so distant future, they will become a common fixture of our cities. But robotics has much more to offer to urban development, as we’ll find out in our next episode.