Participants will have the unique opportunity to deal with robotics company projects, from brief to concept definition and product development by preparing the relevant technical documentation and a professional visual presentation. They will learn the principles of robotics and how to design a robot’s aesthetics while meeting functional and structural requirements to heighten users’ ability to trust and interact with robots and AI-powered machines.
As robots spread across major business (and living) areas, with forecasts of adoption and investment growth, intelligent automata are envisioned to weave themselves into our daily lives. The presence of these robotic “companions”, including products, services and furnishings, raises an aesthetic question involving product design as a subject covering both projects and culture, enhancing robot performance with an emotional, relatable appeal.
During the programme, students will delve into the impact of aesthetics on humans’ ability to trust robots and how semtiotics and anthropology factors play a key role in defining the modalities and outcomes of these interactions.
They will learn how to define the aesthetic body of robots as everyday objects through project work completed by lessons dealing with technology applications, design definition, cognitive user experience, aesthetic language, and critical analysis of the human-robot relationship. Participants will also be challenged with robotic-based company projects from a given brief to concept definition and product development, preparing the relevant technical documentation and a professional visual presentation.
Students will work as junior designers led by a mentor as their “art director”, and supported by teachers in defining specific aspects of their project and subsequent implications.