PERSONALROBOTICS
UNDERSTANDING, DESIGNING & CONSTRUCTING ROBOTS & ROBOTIC SYSTEMS
■ BY VERN GRANER
DORKBOT
People Doing Weird Things With Electricity
SO, YOU’VE BEEN WORKING ON YOUR electronic masterpiece for a few weeks
(months?) and it’s finally finished, so ... now what? Where can you go to show
off your little beauty, the
child of your imagination,
the fruits of your labor?
How about Dorkbot?
Dorkbot’s motto is “People doing
strange things with electricity”
and from what I’ve seen, I’d say
that’s a very accurate description.
Founded by Douglas Repetto of
Columbia’s Computer Music Center
in the fall of 2000, Dorkbot has
spread across the world providing a
framework for display, collaboration,
and celebration of all things tech
(Figure 1).
On a sultry, summer evening in
June 2006, David Nunez, Rodney
Gibbs, and Rich LeGrand pulled off
the first Dorkbot Austin “Cafe
Mundi” — a cute and quirky East
Austin restaurant and hangout. When
I arrived, there was a video projector
pointed at a big screen on one side
of the parking lot and a small PA
system for the presenters to use. In a
matter of moments, I got a general
impression of what Dorkbot Austin
was all about. There were projects
and people, devices and drinks,
music and madness. It was a
contagious carnival atmosphere with
artists, electricians, programmers,
musicians, the curious, and the
chaotic all coming together to show
and tell about their creations while
networking with other self-confessed
“dorks” (Figure 2).
At the time of this writing, there
68 August 2008
■ FIGURE 1.
Map of Dorkbot
events worldwide.
have been 15 such events in Austin
since that first summer night,
averaging a little over one every
other month. Most of the events have
been at Cafe Mundi; the exceptions
being the South By Southwest
(SXSW) festival events that were held
in downtown Austin and one special
event held at the Austin Children’s
Museum. Though most of the events
