Much is being said and written about robots, but what is it like to actually do something together with a robot? Suppose you are making a bike, assisted by a robot: what kind of issues do you run into? How does it feel?

These are the questions that Pak Long Cheung, TU Delft Master student integrated product design, takes on in our first episode of Destination Robot, a RoboHouse podcast that visits places on the TU Delft Campus where state-of-the-art robotics can be experienced firsthand.

If we want to say something sensible about collaboration with a robot, firsthand experience is welcome. But it’s not that easy to meet a robot in the wild. Labs are often closed to the public. And most working robots are still employed in factories and industrial environments, where they toil away behind a safety fence.

The good news is that Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) have been making strides in recent years. Gaming and entertainment always were natural applications, but the technology is now also used for training and communication in healthcare, fashion, sports and engineering.

Putting Wheels on a Bicycle  is a VR experience that lets you feel how it is to work side-by-side with a robot. Commissioned by TU Delft Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering and EIT Manufacturing, it is accessible for anyone with an interest in the subject and the capacity to travel to RoboHouse in Delft.

“The experience was very cool,” says Pak, who managed to assemble three bikes in his role of designated travel guide. “The automation in the AR layer does makes me feel like a robot; it tells me exactly what to do through those blue arrows. But the synergy between me and the robot arm was there.”

This robot destination on the TU Delft Campus was created by Game Tailors, The Barn and TU Delft GameLabs  and can be visited in RoboHouse whenever Corona regulation allows it.

Feel like working with robot? Just get in touch with our community manager Casper van Eersel.