Marriage of Robotics with Handicraft

 Engineer and electronics shop owner Osamu Iwasaki who's been building robots for some time is currently interested in using "soft material" for his machines. His newest work is the RoboKnit which is a collaboration with Hanakomet who did the knitting. 

 

 A little while ago, Iwasaki-san worked with textile artist Tomoco Mouri to make the Kinetic Quilt.  He used a Lilypad Arduino, one $12 servo motor and piano wire and it took him about an hour to build this.

 He is fascinated with what in Japan is now called "extreme handicraft" which seems to have a strong following of its own. You can see examples of this art form here and there's even a group called  O-DA-I Craft where someone comes up with a theme and people send in photos of their work according to that theme.

 So why combine handicraft with robotics?

 People's reactions to these kinds of robots is what motivates Iwasaki-san. The RoboKnit is "Cute!" and many children gathered around when he was filming the video at the park.  On the other hand, the general impression of the Kinetic Quilt was "Creepy~~." "If they were just made of motors and metal, people would've reacted differently. I'm curious to find out what kind of movements and structure make people react in certain ways," he says.