Smokebot

Unsophisticated Cigarette Smoking Robot

2005

With James Tichenor and Vinay Venkatraman for Interaction Ivrea · Smoking multiple cigarettes in succession is commonly viewed as an indication of anxiety or uneasiness. We built the smokebot, a chain-smoking robot, to playfully emphasize the potential for machines to express their state to us behaviorally.

Smokebot's respiratory chamber was created by mechanically linking a syringe plunger to a large servo motor. A hose system joins the respiratory chamber to a cigarette holder and exhalation tube. Inhalation begins by kinking the exhalation tube with a small servo before intake stroke. An exhalation is performed by unkinking the exhalation tube before the exhaust stroke. The ash end of the cigarette is inserted into a second-hand smoke chamber.

An ash pile accumulates in the bottom of the second-hand smoke chamber

Overview of the entire machine during operation, including exhaust stack

Respiratory chamber, cigarette holder, and exhalation interconnect tubing

Video

A video of the smokebot in operation.

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Context

This project was created for the InstantSoup workshop taught at Interaction-Ivrea by Yaniv Steiner and Giorgio Olivero in Spring 2005.