All language subtitles for Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 2014 s02e03 A New Revolution

Tonight, we'll be assembling the world's
greatest robot orchestra and explaining

how simple motors will allow these
machines to perform alongside human

musicians. Welcome to the Christmas
Lecture.

A robot.

Automated machines that use simple
motors and clever software to copy the

done by humans.

And they're getting smarter all the
time.

Take a look at these little fellas here.

Robotic acrobat that can balance on a
tight rope.

Or our six -legged robot spider here
that can shift its weight to stay

upright.

Just like a human can.

But what about something slightly more
complicated?

What about a musical instrument?

I could do this, but I don't think you
can do this.

Well, we'll see if you can do it later
on. Let's see.

Now, if you've seen any of my earlier
lectures, you'll know that I've been

setting myself a grand challenge each
time. And tonight is no different.

The first person to achieve continuous
movement with electricity and

the first electric motor, which is
essential for all robots to function,

Royal Institution's very own Michael
Faraday.

Now, he was fascinated with the
relationship between electricity and

And tonight, I want to honour his work.

So let's do something amazing with
motors that Michael Faraday could never

imagined in 1821.

So drum roll, please.

Very good.

Tonight, we are going to construct the
world's greatest robot orchestra.

Now, the sound of an orchestra playing
in perfect harmony, to me...

represents the pinnacle of human
achievement.

So the question is, can robots replicate
this?

Over the past few months, engineers from
across Europe have been building robot

musicians.

And tonight, we've set them the ultimate
challenge to play the Doctor Who theme

tune.

Now, some members of our ensemble have
used hack technology from around the

to make the music.

Others have programmed and trained to
play much more traditional instruments.

And they'll all be accompanied by real
living members of the London

Orchestra.

Honestly, this truly is going to be
great.

So let's break down our problem into
steps to build up our orchestra.

We need to break down the tune into its
components for the Doctor Who theme

tune. So first thing we need is the
rhythm section, the drums.

Then we need that low bass synth sound,
so we need some synthesizers.

Then let's add some guitars into that.

But then we need the melody for our
Doctor Who theme tune.

And we also need a keyboard in the tune.

And then, for a bit of fun, let's make
one of our instruments fly.

Now, one thing all of these robots have
in common is that they'll all be relying

on the simple relationship between
electricity, magnetism, and movement. So

that's where I'm going to start.

This is the world's first motor.

And it was demonstrated in this lecture
theatre by...

michael faraday over 200 years ago and
charlotte who is the curator of

collections at the ri has very kindly
brought this in for us now it's so

that nobody's allowed to touch it apart
from charlotte so thank you very much

for bringing this in charlotte so andy
has very kindly built a replica for us

well

Now, Faraday knew that if he could run a
current through a wire, this would

create a magnetic field around that
wire.

So if we place the wire next to the
magnet with a magnetic field running

perpendicular or at right angles to the
one created around the wire, the wire

would move.

But the movement would break the
circuit, so we couldn't really get

movement until he remembered Mercury.

But before we get this mercury out, I
think we should get the real fragile one

out of the way. So thank you very much,
Charlotte.

Now, Andy's going to pour the mercury
around the magnet.

Then we can dip this metal needle that
Andy has here into the mercury.

and we can pass an electric current
through it.

So we can just use a normal power supply
to pass the electric current through

it.

And then what we should see is rotation.

So the mercury metal conducts
electricity, but it also allows the

which at room temperature, the mercury
is a liquid, So the objects can move

freely through that.

And there we are. We have rotation.

And it just keeps moving round and round
because there is liquid in there which

allows that continuous movement.

But of course, in modern motors, we use
brushes instead of that mercury.

But thank you very much for your help
there, Andy.

Now, most of us still work on this
principle, and you can even try building

yourself.

You can make one actually out of a
battery, a magnet, and a coil of wire.

And I'm going to come and sit next to
you, if that's all right, to come and do

this. So shift you along, everybody.

That's enough, I'm not that big.

Okay, now this is a really simple one
that you're going to help me with. Okay,

so what's your name? Lucy. Lucy, okay.

So what we have here, Lucy, is a
battery.

a magnet and a coil, nice and simple.

So what I want you to do is just put
that battery on top of that magnet.

Okay, you see it's a very strong magnet.

So that magnet can set up a magnetic
field.

Then we have our coil here, and if we
place our coil over the top

of that battery, it will generate a
current, an electrical current through

coil.

So the wire sets off a separate magnetic
field, which runs perpendicular, or at

right angles, to our magnetic field
here.

And the result is that the two fields
react with each other, and our coil

rotates.

Okay? Got it, Lucy?

So, place our coil over the top. There
we are.

Then it goes round nice and fast.

Thank you.

In a moment, I'm going to be introducing
you to the first robot in our

orchestra. But just before I do, I want
to show you a hack that we did with the

most common robot of them all.

Now, you might not think your washing
machine is a robot.

But actually, it's just a collection of
motors that replicates the manual work

of having to wash your clothes by hand.

So on a much more basic level, it turns
electricity into movement.

So if it's possible to turn electricity
into movement, can we turn movement into

electricity?

Well, a few weeks ago, I challenged Andy
to build a wind turbine and generate

electricity using an old washing
machine.

Now, this isn't as stupid as it sounds.

When you put your power into your
washing machine, you get movement. The

spins. So if you spin the drum...

Surely you can get power out.

So, Andy, how did you get on?

Not too bad, not too bad. I didn't use
too many of the bits of the washing

machine in the turbine, as you can see,
littered around here. But the main bit,

obviously, is the motor. This is the
main motor that turns the drum in the

washing machine.

And like you said, if we can use
something else to turn the motor, it

generate electricity. So we're going to
be trying to use these turbine blades to

turn the motor.

to try and generate some electricity.

Okay, how much electricity?

Maybe not all that much. This probably
isn't the most efficient way to generate

electricity in the world, but we should
be able to get some light out of these

torches on the front here. Right, okay,
so these we need to keep an eye out, is

it? Right, so we need to test it.

Now, of course, it doesn't get that
windy in the lecture theatre, so Andy,

conveniently, has brought his leaf
blower with him.

So it might get a bit blustery over
here, so hang on to your heads,

Okay, so are we ready?

So everybody keep an eye out on those
lights.

So let's test it, Andy. Okay.

spinning, and the lights came on. So we
made a wind turbine from a washing

machine. Now, as Andy said, it's not the
most efficient way to power your home,

but it does show that relationship
between electricity, magnetism, and

really well. Excellent work, Andy. Thank
you very much.

A little bit more about motors. We can
start assembling our robot musicians.

So let's start simple with the drums.

Well, maybe not so simple, but you only
have to worry about the rhythm because

on the drums the pitch doesn't change.

So all we really need is a single motor
to play each drum, like this snare drum.

So attached to each drumstick is a motor
that will connect the circuit so that

the motor makes the stick hit the drum.

And bounce back again. So I should be
able to just keep hitting that drum with

every signal.

Like so.

Brilliant.

But our orchestra isn't going to work by
me standing here pressing a switch. So

we need to program that tune.

For a human orchestra, we'd use sheet
music.

Which has a line for the bass.

The synth and the strings and of course
one for the drums as well.

Now sheet music is similar actually to a
computer program in that it tells the

musicians what notes to play, how long
to hold each note and how long they

should play it for.

Now let me show you a robot that uses
some very simple instructions to do

something very, very cool.

Remember these?

Has anyone ever tried solving a Rubik's
Cube?

Oh, lots of people.

There you are then. You can have that
one. Try solving that.

And someone over here, you try solving
that one.

I need this one, I'm afraid.

Okay, now, you should have solved it by
now, yes? How are you getting on?

No? Not quite?

Okay, well, keep going.

Now it might seem impossible to solve,
but mathematicians have shown that you

can solve any cube within just 20 moves.

Because there's a certain pattern of
twists and turns that would get the cube

back to normal. So all of the colours on
the side would be the same.

Now the inventors of this robot set
themselves a challenge.

This is CubeStormer 3.

And it's the quickest cube solver in the
world.

So how long do you think it would take
to solve this?

How long?

10 or 20 seconds.

Yep, any advance?

10, 20 to 30 seconds.

Okay, well, let's see.

I just align my Rubik's Cube.

And if Dave, you just want to come and
have a look at this.

I press my go button.

Wow.

Four seconds.

I know it looks magic, but actually it's
Lego and a smartphone.

Now it takes photographs of the cube.

And the software works out the quickest
way in which to solve these Rubik's

Cubes. So it writes a program to tell
each robot arm which way to turn.

And then actually, once the math is
done, it's just a simple list of

instructions. So spin this part of the
cube, rotate that part, spin the other

face.

Now the same is true for our robot
drummer.

Now he's from Queen Mary's University of
London, and here he is.

Say hi to Motima.

Hi, Motorman.

Hi.

Now, we need to write a program to know
exactly when each motor will turn on to

create the rhythm.

Now, the easiest way to do this is a
form of electronic sheet music called

or Musical Instrument Digital Interface.

And it's been designed specifically so
that instruments can talk to the

and back again.

So, instead of writing a whole new
program,

we can take the drum from our sheet
music, write it in MIDI software, which

then convert it into instructions for
Mortimer.

So if we sent a simple code to the
drummer, we should hear this.

Okay, nice and simple.

But we could send a more complex code
that repeats a certain rhythm, and we'd

hear this.

Excellent. Okay, already we're starting
to rock and we just have one.

Now, in fact, all our robots are going
to be controlled by MIDI, as it means we

can work in a format that humans can
read, which is sheet music, and then

convert it straight into code that our
robot musicians are much more

with.

Okay, so one musician down, lots more to
go.

Because we don't just need a rhythm in
our piece.

We also need pitch.

So we need to start with that low bass
synthesizer sound.

You know the one for Doctor Who? Who
knows it?

Sing it, everybody.

Not bad, not bad. I hope the robot
orchestra are as good as you guys.

So, we need another robot that can read
music and adjust the pitch of the sound

as it produces it.

Now, in the spirit of making and hacking
and repurposing, this robot musician is

made from a device that was made
redundant many years ago.

Now, in the days before laser and inject
printers, documents were printed by

very noisy dot matrix printers.

which had to punch a letter shape
through the ink -covered ribbon onto

Now, we don't really think about
printers as robots, but they use motors

replicate human work, or at least the
hundreds of monks that used to copy

So, if we set it printing, we'll hear
the motors whirring away and changing

pitch. But we're not interested in
what's being printed.

We just want to hear how the sound
changes.

So the owner of this has hacked it, and
he realized that he could alter the

pitch of the sound by printing different
patterns.

So it accepts our MIDI code.

So the computer in the printer converts
into instructions telling different

motors when to move.

So it sounds like this. Let's see if you
can guess the tune.

Anyone guess it?

Anyone guess it?

Yeah.

Oh, to joy. Well done, yes. And well
done if you knew that at home as well.

Now, our orchestra is starting to take
shape.

Robots can convert MIDI into motorized
movement.

And there's a much more sophisticated
breed of printer that's starting to

increase in popularity.

and may prove very useful as we move to
the next instrument in our orchestra.

Finishing off the rhythm section of our
unconventional orchestra is a bass

guitar, which has been adapted to play
itself for students at the University of

Leeds.

So like our earlier instruments, it
reads our MIDI program, but this uses

solenoids and compressed air to press
down on the strings.

And then it adjusts the pitch of the
notes played when the actuator plucks

strings. So just like a human guitarist
would.

So let's hear what our bass guitar
sounds like.

Wow.

Whoa.

The team who put this together wanted to
give the guitar an even more human

-like feeling, so it gave it fingers.

Now, the solution for these fingers was
to print them using a 3D printer, which

is quite similar to this one that we
have.

Now, we have to be very careful with
this because it's halfway through making

model.

And it's making a model of someone in
the audience.

So Isla, would you like to come and join
me?

Hi, Isla. How are you?

Okay, so let's just go around here so we
can see what's going on, Isla.

So a few weeks ago, we sent some people
to Isla's house to get a 3D scan of her

head.

And now, we can see people scanning your
head there. That must have been very

strange for your Isla, wasn't it?

So, the head is being printed layer by
layer.

So, each of these layers can be seen as
a thinly sliced horizontal cross

-section of Isla's head.

Now, 3D printing is just a rapid
prototyping process, which is capable of

making... three -dimensional solid
objects from a digital file.

Now, to buy a 3D printer is actually
still quite expensive.

But if you have a design, there are
companies that will print one for you,

in the same way people print your
photographs.

So, as you can see, this would take a
very long time to start printing Isla's

head now.

So we have printed one a little earlier.

So are you ready for this, Isla?

Wow!

What do you think, Isla?

I think that looks great. What do

you think, Isla?

I think it's good.

It looks fantastic. I did have my hair
up at the time. You did have a ponytail

in at the time, did you? Good.

We're glad.

Well, the extra special thing here is
that your book...

is going to go into the Royal
Institution downstairs next to Michael

bus. How good is that?

Okay. I'm done.

All right. Thank you very much, Alan.

Thank you.

Now, printing colourful fingers is fun
for our bass guitar, but is there a more

serious application for our 3D printing?

Well, yes.

And hopefully, we have a video call here
with Hayley Fraser in Inverness.

Now, hi, Hayley.

How are you?

Hi. Good, good. Now, Hayley, I
understand you have a prosthetic hand

3D printed. Is that right?

Yeah. Yeah? And can you show us it?

Fantastic.

Do you want to give us a wave?

That's brilliant. Now, this must be life
-changing for you, is it?

Yeah.

I really like the colour, Hayley, the
pink colour. Did you choose that?

Yes. You did, yes.

OK. Now, can you show us something with
the hand? Maybe pick something up.

So, Hayley's dad... When did Hayley get
this

hand? Hayley received it back in June
this year.

It took around six weeks for the whole
process, which was a very quick

turnaround. Wow, that's amazing.

It must have made Hayley's life just so
different, did it?

Oh, yes, right on out, yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I think the thing that
really impresses me most about this is

prosthetic hands can cost literally
thousands of pounds.

But this one is so low cost that it
means that as Hayley grows, then the

can always be the right size for Hayley
as well.

Yeah. And that must be life -changing in
itself.

Yeah, of course. We can actually buy 3D
printers for our home, which we can

actually print the parts for ourselves.

That's fantastic. So you can actually
print your own hands at home then as

Yes. So it means you can choose what
colour you want as well, Hayley.

Yes, that's great.

OK, well, thank you very much for
joining us and happy holidays to you.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Bye
-bye.

Now, our orchestra is starting to take
shape.

We can have a drummer, a bassist and a
printer. Let's not forget our lovely

printer.

While these robot musicians will get
away with playing the right notes in the

right order, some instruments are much,
much harder to play.

Now, we want a robot to play the solo
part in Doctor Who. Who knows the solo

part in Doctor Who?

Sing it.

Someone down here is very, very good.

Excellent.

If it all goes wrong later, I might just
get you to do that, okay?

Now, we want them to play it on one of
these, a theremin. And they are

notoriously difficult to play.

Because you have to play in mid -air.

So you can hear some sort of strange
noise.

And on the left hand, I can control the
volume.

And then my right hand can control the
pitch.

Well, I've definitely not perfected it
yet, so I hope the robot does a lot

better than me.

One of the things that makes this
especially hard to play is that to keep

tune, you have to position your hands in
exactly the right place in the air.

If the theremin is nudged or the
settings are different, you'd have to

reposition your hands.

So you have to listen to the sound
that's being produced, think whether

tune, and then think, do I need the
pitch higher or lower, and then move

hands accordingly.

Now this is called a feedback loop.

And this is what our theremin -playing
robot will need to master.

Now, to show you what I mean about a
feedback loop, I need a volunteer to

me with the 20 whistle.

Okay, you there with the necklace on?
Yeah, okay, come down.

Let's see. Okay, let's see. Right.

What I want you to do, here's your
swanee whistle.

I'm going to turn away from you and play
a note.

And then I want you to try and replicate
that note.

Okay?

Got it?

Keep going.

Oh, I think you've just about got it
there, yeah.

But it's quite difficult, isn't it?

But actually what you were doing there
was a feedback loop.

So I gave you a note, you were trying to
listen to what that note was, and then

you were adjusting your hands and the
sound accordingly so you hit the same

as me. But it's quite difficult, isn't
it? Yeah, you did very well. Thank you

very much.

Now this rather cute little robot is
programmed to follow a very simple

loop.

So when I set it running, what we need
is for it to follow a white line.

So we just have some white line on a
tape around the theatre.

Now the program we've written is a nice
simple one.

So if I set this running on the line,

we can see it start to move.

So the program is written. It's very
simple.

At the front of that robot is an
infrared light and a sensor.

Now, when the light flashes, the amount
of light reflected back is measured by

that sensor.

So if the sensor is over the white line,
there's a high value, and the computer

tells the motor to move the robot
forward.

If it's over the black, the amount of
light reflected is too low.

So the computer tells the motors to move
the robot left or right and find that

white line again.

And each of these is a feedback loop.

We have an action.

The robot moves.

There's a measurement with the sensor.

The robot reacts and it changes what
it's doing.

And you can even see it's just gone
round a little corner there. So I think

might just let it keep going.

What do you think?

Let's see how far it goes.

Okay, well, we've got a camera mounted
to the front of it, so we'll just follow

its progress and we'll pick up with it
later on.

Now, our more advanced robot, like the
one capable of playing a theremin, can't

really be programmed in this way.

Our little line -following robot knows
what it's likely to encounter, so we can

tell it exactly how to react.

But what happens if you place a robot in
an unpredictable alien world without a

big white line to follow?

In a place where communication is almost
impossible and robots have to deal with

the challenges themselves.

So on the surface of Mars, for example.

So please give a very warm welcome to
Abby Hutty and Bruno.

So, Abby, you've heard about our
challenge to make a most advanced robot

theremin. Now, you're part of a team
that's building a much, much more

complicated robot.

So, what do we have here?

This is Bruno. This is one of our
prototype rovers for the 2018 Mars

that's the European Space Agency's first
rover mission to Mars.

So Bruno here's a prototype, so that
means he's a working model, and he helps

to develop things like how we're going
to drive around on Mars, and also how

we're going to actually autonomously
navigate, so how we're going to work out

where we want to travel when we're on
Mars.

Fantastic. Now, I know tonight that Paul
is actually controlling him for us in

the lecture theatre, but I'm guessing
that's not what's going to happen when

he's on Mars.

Yeah, so in the lecture theatre it's
pretty dark in here, and the rover is

designed to be able to see...

and get the right kind of contrast on
Mars during the daytime.

So he can't really work out things in
the dark.

So we're actually having to control him
by Wi -Fi, which is great.

We're just remote controlling him, but
we can't do that when we're on Mars

because Mars is so far away that it
would take up to 22 minutes for the

to get there just to tell them what to
do. So if you're driving around on Mars

and you hit the stop button...

That's a bit too long, really.

So we have to make our rover intelligent
enough to make its own decisions about

what it can and can't do safely and
drive around all by itself.

Brilliant. So you're almost like giving
it coordinates that you might give a car

GPS? Yeah, it's a bit like that. We can
give it a destination that it's got to

go to. It can be up to two days' drive,
and it'll just look at what's in front

of it. It can bring up an elevation map,
which is basically a picture of what's

in front of it in three dimensions.

And then it can do calculations to work
out...

what's too big an obstacle to climb over
and what's safe for it to trundle over

and then just pick its own route to that
destination, phone us up. I think we

have that here, yeah. So this is an
elevation map. So this shows us there's

big rock in front of us here that would
be too big to climb over, but all of the

blue area, that's nice and safe.

Nothing's too big, so we can just drive
straight over that.

Right, okay. So the other thing I'm
noticing here, Abi, is that these

they don't have the normal rubber on
them like you would on tyres.

And so they're all metal, so they're
very noisy. Why is that?

Okay, so the primary objective of the
rover mission is to look for life on

either in the past or present living
life.

And rubber comes from trees. It's a
natural substance.

So if we were to take rubber tires with
us, that could contaminate the samples

that we're looking at. And we could find
Earth life in that rubber and think

that it was life on Mars.

So we've got to make sure that nothing
that we take with us is going to

contaminate Mars. We've got to develop
these flexible wheels so that you still

get the same kind of traction and grip
going over rocks and going through sand

as you would with a rubber tyre.

but without anything organic inside it.
Wow, okay, that sounds like a tremendous

project.

Thank you. And all of this technology
that you're developing here will be on

ExoMars rover, is that right?
Absolutely, yes. So we're developing

bits and pieces, lots of different
prototypes that test different things,

will all come together in our final
rover that launches in 2018.

That's fantastic.

Well, thank you so much, Abby, for
bringing this along, and the very best

luck with this fantastic project.

Thank you. Thank you.

Absolutely incredible.

And to play our theremin in our
orchestra, our robot will need the

Bruno, that Mars rover.

Because Abby didn't tell Bruno exactly
how to get to its destination.

She just tells him where to go, and he
was working out the rest.

So in the same way, we need to be able
to tell our theremin player which note

hit, and it must make a judgment as to
what the note might be.

Then it listens to the sound that's
being produced and makes adjustments to

that perfect pitch, just as we were
doing with the swanny whistles earlier.

And here is our solution.

We're back with our H5W.

And he's such a cute machine, isn't he?

It's modelled on a three -year -old. And
it lives in Barcelona in Spain. And

it's travelled here together with
several friends, including...

Paul Frasier and Vicky Valutz from SPECS
Research Group at the Catalan Institute

of Advanced Studies at the University
Pompidou Fabra.

Welcome.

Hi, it's IW.

My name is H5W. I am like a robot.

Paul is my friend and we love to be
here.

Brilliant. Now, Paul, why would you need
such a complicated robot?

Well, the iCub robot, this one called
H5W, has about 60 motors.

Like many of the robots we saw can do
one thing.

But if you look at their own bodies, we
can do more than one thing.

On the other hand, if you now really
want to advance robots and make a robot

that really can be our friend, that can
work with us and we can relate to, then

we might have to think about giving them
more of the property that we have. And

it does feel really human -like. When it
turns around and looks at you and winks

at you and things, it does feel very,
very human -like. So let's see what it

do with these hands.

So H5W, can you do something?

Let's play with the piano.

That sounds like a good idea.

Okay, so why don't you play a C?

Can you play a C for us?

Well, that was almost right. And we have
been practicing this the whole

afternoon, you know, so I'm a little bit
disappointed.

It's like a naughty three -year -old.
Look, H5W, can we try this again? And

in mind, it's being recorded. Lots of
people are watching. Can you try to do

right this time?

Well done.

Thank you very much.

Yeah, I agree with that.

So we've been talking about feedback
loops and how we need that for our

orchestra. So this is a very
sophisticated feedback loop plus the one

further from that as well, isn't it?
Well, this is the whole point. If you

at our brain, it's actually managing
different kinds of feedback loops at the

same time.

You can think about brains like a
prediction machine.

It's not only getting errors from the
world, as in the line -following robot,

oh, I'm off, now I have to correct.

It's like a feedback error.

But it's really also predicting, like,
oh, what should the world look like when

I'm doing things? So it's highly
relying, and on the same point as robot,

predictions it's making about the world
it's in.

And we'd need that if we were able to
coexist with robots as well. Absolutely.

So we'd like to hear a tune from it. I
think we'd like to hear a tune, wouldn't

we? Yeah?

All right.

Let's see what it can play.

This is not really difficult.

How about this?

What do we think? I think that was
starting to sound like something. What

think it was?

Twinkle, twinkle, little star. It
sounded a bit like that, didn't it?

Excellent. Correct.

Well done.

Correct. Well done.

So it sounds like H5W could be the star
of our heroin playing later on. So thank

you very much for showing this poll, and
thank you very much, H5W.

Well done. Thank you.

So I'm looking forward to hearing H5W
play our solo part on the theremin later

on.

Now, by using constant feedback loops,
we're now one step closer to completing

our orchestra.

So, how's our line following robot
getting on?

Can we see any? Oh, yeah, we can see
some footage of him. Excellent.

Okay, so you can see him actually going
around quite a tight corner there.

That's quite difficult to do. So he's
definitely outside of the lecture

and somewhere in the RI there, I think.

But I think we should just put some tape
down outside the RI and just let him

walk around London, see what's going on.

Now, next, we want to work out how to
bring several robots to play together.

After all, a good orchestra is much more
than the sum of its parts.

Now, to give you an idea of how robots
work together, I want to introduce you

a swarm of robots.

These rather cute little things here are
pixel bots, and they're being developed

by Disney Research and ETH Zurich.

And they're tiny two -wheeled robots
that have LEDs.

so that they can light up and make
shapes.

So to tell me more about these, please
welcome developer Paul Beardsley.

So thank you very much for joining us,
Paul. Now, these pixel bots have started

swarming together in the middle, but
they're going to start a performance for

us. I understand. Is that right?

That's right.

This is a swarm of robots that can make
images and animations.

And what we're about to see is the story
of the universe as told by the pixel

bots all in two minutes.

Okay. So the way to think of it is each
robot is like one pixel, and what we've

got here is a display with 50 pixels.

Okay. So we're seeing something
happening here, Paul. What's going on?

So now we're seeing the story of the
universe told by the pixel bots, and it

started with the Big Bang, and now we've
gone to the solar system, an

abbreviated version. Here's the sun,
here's the earth, and here's the moon.

what we're going to see is a fish
appear, and then a dinosaur, and then a

And that's the history of the universe
in an abbreviated form.

History of the universe by pixel bots.
Brilliant.

And do they, I see there's a couple of
them colliding. Do they often collide?

Well, this is one of the things we've
worked on, is collision avoidance. So if

you've got a swarm of robots, you want
them to go out into the world. You don't

want them to collide with each other or
with people.

These are little robots, and so we
forgive them if they make a few

you will see a few collisions happen.
Yes, absolutely. So how are they

communicating? I notice you've got some
antennas just over here as well.

Yes, that's right. So the way this
system works is there's a camera above

and that's connected to this computer.

And the computer, it knows the images we
want to create. It's also computing the

collision avoidance. And it then sends
wireless commands here, and they go to

each individual robot. So we're saying,
robot one, go here. Robot two, go here,

and so on. Excellent. And we're seeing a
dinosaur here.

That's our dinosaur, yeah. Okay,
brilliant.

Okay.

And then, of course, evolution will give
us man at the end here. Of course.

One step beyond these robots, and the
image will move forward. Okay, well, I

think I'd quite like to get a volunteer,
so how about a volunteer? How about

you, the grey jumper?

Yeah?

Okay, Jocelyn.

What I want you to do is try picking up
part of the body, okay, a pixel bot, and

pretending it's a naughty pixel bot.

Put it over there. Just move it out of
the way.

Okay, let's take a leg.

See what happens.

So you can see they're actually all
compensating for it. So now the leg has

become the hand.

Let's try and check it, Jocelyn. Let's
take two or three. So move a couple of

the legs.

And a body. Get a green one as well.

Yeah, get a foot as well.

Right, and then plunk them down. Let's
see how they get on.

Wow, this is amazing, Paul. So you can
see that they want to move,

and then not only that, they can
actually change colour. So the foot has

become either a hand or an arm.

and the rest of the body has compensated
for it. That's right. That's amazing. I

don't think we can outsmart her just
then, can we?

Unfortunately not. But that's brilliant.
Thank you very much, Jocelyn.

The

pixel

bots are a little bit too small for our
keyboard players.

So the University of Plymouth have
donated part of their robot football

the cause.

And here they are.

And these little fellas have just come
back from playing football in China.

And these six robots are able to share
information between themselves.

So when they get an instruction to play
a note, say a key on a keyboard, the

message is passed to all six robots.

And the closest robot to that key will
play it.

Now, eagle -eyed Doctor Who fans will
have noticed that they've all come

as different incarnations of the Doctor
himself.

I think this one's my favourite, with a
little scarf here.

But let's hear them in action.

That was pretty good.

That was slightly imperfect, but not bad
for some Doctor Whos, I think.

Now, I think that's pretty good because
our orchestra is almost complete.

Towards the start of the lecture, I
mentioned robots will be all controlled

using MIDI information.

sent to each robot in real time that
would tell them what to play.

Well, once we've gathered this many
robots, we felt the time was right to

them all together and try it out.

So, what we should be able to hear is
what we heard two days ago

at the first rehearsal of our robot
orchestra.

And here is some footage we have.

We connected everything together and do
we want to hear it?

Yeah. I warn you, it's not pretty.

Here it goes.

What do we think?

Now, I'm not sure about you, but it
didn't quite sound like the Doctor Who

tune I've got in my head. And it's sort
of in there somewhere, I think.

But it wasn't great. So what was going
wrong?

And although we were telling the robots
to play their notes at exactly the same

time, some robots were taking slightly
longer to play their notes, while others

were doing it very quickly.

Now this gap is called latency, and it
makes the orchestra sound out of time.

So we had to go around every robot and
calculate how long to the nearest

millisecond it took each robot to play a
note.

We then had to work out those figures
into the score, meaning we'd cue some

robots to play a fraction of a second
before the others, so that when we hear

the finished thing, They all sound like
they're in time.

Now, last but definitely not least, when
designing our robot orchestra, we

wanted to include a percussionist that
would be unashamedly cool and take to

air.

Now, you may have seen quadcopters for
sale in toy shops, but nothing quite

this. Let's just watch what it can do.

clever bit is, nobody's controlling it.

Instead, the flight of the quadcopter is
being precisely controlled by a

computer, and the software design has
been designed by a team at Bristol

Robotics Laboratory.

Now, if you look above your head, some
of you, you'll see some of these glowing

red circles, and there's a few of them
around the lecture theatre.

Now, in fact, these are small infrared
cameras.

And they're looking for small balls just
like this one, which have been placed

around the quadcopter.

These are motion capture reflectors.
They're the same thing that filmmakers

would use to turn an actor into a CGI
character.

But we're using them to tell the
computer exactly where the drone is in

lecture theatre.

Now, on screen, you can see the position
of the cameras and the position of the

drone.

Now, if the drone stays in this precise
location in 3D space, those four motors

can speed up or slow down and move it
back to where it's supposed to be.

But it's not just a quadcopter we can
track.

We've attached some motion capture
reflectors to this teapot.

And if I wave this around...

We should see the cameras are tracking
the position of this teapot as well.

And we programmed this computer to
recognize the movement of my teapot and

adjust the position of the quadcopter
accordingly.

So I should be able to control this
quadcopter with my teapot.

How good is that?

That's fantastic.

Now let's see how good I am at landing
this.

Not so good.

In our robot orchestra, the quadcopter's
tether has been connected to this arm

down here, which is positioned so that
when the quadcopter jumps into the air,

it will strike and crash the symbol,
like so.

So the flight path for each of these
jumps has been pre -programmed and will

cued by a mini -signal, just like all of
the other robots.

So it's completely automated.

Right. I think our orchestra is just
about complete.

But we have a few more robot musicians
I'd like you to meet.

So can we bring on the rest of the
robot, please?

Now, as well as Mortimer, the drummer...

We've also brought in this robotic drum
kit that's been designed by a team at

King's College London.

So can we hear a little bit from this
robot, please?

Excellent. And at the back, next to the
quadcopter, is a pipe organ that,

believe it or not, used to be made out
of a set of shelves.

And it was hacked out of household items
by a researcher at the University of

Aberystwyth. And the air is actually
being pushed through the pipes by an old

vacuum cleaner.

So can I hear a tune out of the pipes,
please?

Now that's how to hack your home. Very
cool indeed.

We've also got a robotic glockenspiel.

And this very cool electric guitar,
which uses compressed air to push

down the levers on the strings.

Can we hear the guitar?

Excellent. Okay.

Now, as promised...

we've invited some human musicians to
join our robot too. So please can you

welcome Galia, Robert, Chris and Kate
from the London...

Now,

I

think we're actually there. So I'll just
let you guys get comfortable there.

And please welcome Andy Lambert from
City University London, who has been

conducting this robot orchestra in the
past few days. A huge round of applause

for Andy.

I've not actually heard these robots
play together yet.

So I genuinely have no idea how this is
going to sound. So I'm with you guys

tonight. And even if the humans outshine
the robots, we'll have shown that

performing in an orchestra is not beyond
the grasp of machines.

If we can master the technologies we've
seen over the past hour, we should be

able to make a better future for
everyone, be that 3D printing limbs or

discovering other planets.

I call this lecture a new revolution.

And the hacking revolution starts right
here.

I want you to stop thinking about your
phone or your laptop as a black box, but

something you can tinker with.

If your phone doesn't do what you want
it to do, write an app of your own.

If something in your house doesn't
behave the way you want it to, think

how you can hack it, how you can take
control.

We set ourselves... Three grand
challenges in these lectures.

And my final challenge is to you.

What is your great engineering
challenge?

What problem are you going to solve?

And if you haven't worked it out yet,
that's okay too.

Now is the time to get those skills,
learn some code, buy that simple

electronics kit.

Then, when the inspiration hits, you'll
be ready and sparks will fly.

Now, I'm going to leave you tonight with
the first ever performance of the Royal

Institution Robot Orchestra.

Are we ready for this?

Yeah? Brilliant. Okay, take it away,
Andy.