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MUSEUM EXAMPLES
The PITTSBURGH ZOO & PPG
AQUARIUM has a resident telepresence
robot named VGo. This mobile video- and
audio-enabled communications robot enables
school groups to visit the zoo remotely, using
VGo to navigate the exhibits, watch demonstrations
and lectures, and interact with museum
instructors. The museum’s staff notes VGo “not
only saves time and money, but also supports
the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium’s conservation
message by reducing the emission
of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere with
less travel.”
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial
Research Organization’s (CSIRO) Museum
Robot helped the NATIONAL MUSEUM
OF AUSTRALIA “reassemble” the body of
Australia’s most famous racehorse, Phar Lap,
who won three successive Melbourne Cups.
Tragically Phar Lap was poisoned at the height
of his career, and pieces of his body reside in
three museums. In honor of Melbourne Cup
Day 2013, students from three schools were
handed the digital reins of the CSIRO museum
robot, controlling its 360-degree camera to
explore exhibits and speak with experts at the
three museums.
The REINA SOFIA MUSEUM in Madrid
enlisted the help of a robot in its conservation
department. Pablito, as this robot is known,
uses infrared and ultraviolet photography
to meticulously examine paintings, taking
hundreds of microscopic pictures to document
condition in fine detail. Pablito has worked
on about a dozen paintings, including works
by Picasso and Joan Miro. The robot can work
unsupervised 24/7, and can be controlled by
computer from a remote location. It can travel
to work onsite for art that cannot be moved (it
worked on Picasso’s Guernica this way), though
paintings are usually brought to its lab.
The MIRAIKAN SCIENCE MUSEUM
auditioned Honda Motor Company’s bubbleheaded
Asimo robot as a docent in July 2013.
The trial was a bit rocky, with Asimo struggling
to distinguish between hands raised to ask a
question, and those merely snapping a photo
with a smartphone. Asimo’s fairly low-tech
interface enabled it to respond to about a
hundred questions selected from a
touch panel.
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