Category: update

On King’s Day we conducted a new experiment with the Wijkbot in the Afrikaanderwijk. After the King’s visit, the neighbourhood organised a festival in the park.

Using the Wijkbot, a Verzamelbot (Collection Robot) was built to help keep the festival grounds clean. The design and construction was carried out by residents of the Cities of Things Lab 010 think tank.

The goal is to explore whether new technology — normally developed by large tech companies — can instead be designed by citizens, with maximum freedom to determine its function. That is the Wijkbot: a robot kit made from simple materials.

After several sessions discussing the role of robots in the neighbourhood, the group decided to seize King’s Day as an opportunity to sketch and test a robot in the neighbourhood. In two brainstorming sessions the Verzamelbot was born, then built at a making workshop at Scrap, using an IBC container as base. The robot was given the function of collecting reusable waste, and also collecting and spreading stories from the neighbourhood.

It was a success: residents at the festival understood the function and sometimes made use of it. The ultimate ideal is that such a kit can be used by residents to develop and operate their own services.

At the Smart & Social Fest, neighborhood robots were used as the basis for two workshops: a walk with 20 people and 1 Wijkbot from CMI op Zuid to the Afrikaanderplein, and a session at Stadslab where quick prototypes were built.

Workshop: Walk with the Neighborhood Robot

Small autonomous vehicles — delivery robots, robot assistants, autonomous rubbish trucks — are increasingly appearing in Rotterdam and are likely to become commonplace within a few years. Will they transform our neighbourhoods into a sci-fi reality, or be adapted to fit the human scale of our communities?

A second group of Technical Informatics students developed a version of the Wijkbot that can navigate autonomously from point to point using sensors and positioning technology, while avoiding obstacles.

The Wijkbot was also present at the ThingsCon unconference on 9 December 2022. Using the basic kit, visitors spontaneously created interventions — including in the café of the conference venue, the Nieuwe Instituut.

The plan is for the Inzamelbot to collect leftover materials at the Afrikaandermarkt. We tested with a version of the Wijkbot carrying a stack of bread crates to see how market visitors respond.

Market visitors don’t bat an eye, and several engage with it. Even without any signage, the function is understood and used.

The reactions were captured with a 360-degree camera and studied afterwards.

At the end of October 2022, a special version of the Wijkbot appeared at Dutch Design Week. For the occasion, we gave the prototype the name Wijkbot and launched the special landing page wijkbot.nl.

The Wijkbot was not only on display at the Design United stand, but also occasionally took tours around the exhibition floor. We learned a great deal from the reactions.

A group of Technical Informatics students worked on a first technical assignment for the Wijkbot: a self-driving version equipped with sensors to understand its surroundings. The group named their version Oberbot.

The assignment began with studying the existing neighborhood robot and choosing which scenarios to investigate. The scenario explores what it would mean for the Wijkbot to navigate independently.

After choosing the scenario, participants did a brief exploration of available possibilities and components that could be applied.