"odyssetron": a cybernautical metamodel: the robotic, marine circumnavigation of the earth

Leonardo

"ODYSSETRON": A Cybernautical Metamodel: The Robotic, Marine Circumnavigation of theEarthAuthor(s): Bryan RogersSource: Leonardo, Vol. 17, No. 3 (1984), pp. 159-166Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1575183 .

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OD YSSETRON-A Cybernautical Metamodel:

The Robotic, Marine Circumnavigation of the Earth

Bryan Rogers

Abstract-The author describes ODYSSETRON, an on-going environmental project designed to unfold over a period of 10 years. The project focuses ultimately on developing a robot capable of marine

circumnavigation of the earth. The paper presents extensive discussion of several issues and ideas in the work, including trans-national planetary cooperation; the synthesis of art, science and technology; robotics and artificial intelligence; and the nature of the designing process.

Phase I of this four-phase project, which included the launching of 100 free-floating modules in the San Francisco Bay waterways in 1980, is described in detail.

I. INTRODUCTION

ODYSSETRON is a comprehensive, long-term project inspired by Homer's

Odyssey. In the fourth and final phase of this work, Odysseus reappears after an absence of three millennia seeking to

circumnavigate the earth in the form of a robotic marine craft.

This work is in large part my response to a paradox. I believe that humanity would benefit from and indeed seeks a transcultural understanding and unity. However, I observe an increasing frag- mentation of the social fabric of the entire

planetary culture. In our search for unity we use finer and

finer grids to study separate parts-an effort whose assumed goal is to reveal the nature of the whole. Each successive dilation and analysis of the parts produces its own time-bounded 'sub-history' and, in turn, its own justification for further

investigation under a higher powered microscope. We probe for understandings, values and connections in ever smaller containers, not only in art and science but in all aspects of world civilization. OD YSSETRON reverses the microscope. It is a synthetic gesture-a lyrical collage of philosophical concepts, social/political issues, and art/science events.

ODYSSETRON faces many challenges. At this point the project is more fantasy than physical or historical reality. Fraught with uncertainties, it is a line of thought which I am casting through the evolving present into a quasi-predictable future. I intend to use the line to wind in that future, to which we have a direct-if uncertain-connection.

Bryan Rogers is an artist and teacher. Conceptual

Design Area, Art Department, San Francisco State

University, 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco,

California 94132, U.S.A. (Received 9 September

1983)

Pergamon Press Ltd. Printed in Great Britain. 0024-094X/84 $3.00+0.00

The project is described in two parts. The first I call its heuristic: the sequence of events organized to search effectively for the path to the work's stated goal. The

second part discusses aspects of the context: the network of issues and ideas which define the initial comprehensive environment of the work.

ODYSSETRON

A Cybernautical Metamodel

PHASE I II IV

( o ) C( Co- a FUNCTION

Information Information Communication Unmanned

Storage Transmission Circumnavigation of the Earth

San Francisco Pacific Prospective LAUNCH Bay Ocean Route of 9

SITE Water System Phase IV

NUMBER OF 100 64 16 1

MODULES

LAUNCH 1980 1980 198 19 DATE 19

Figure 1. ODYSSETRON Heuristic. This table shows the four phases of the project and their characteristics. The first three phases herald the robot circumnavigator of the final phase, and knit the

project into a conceptual unit.

LEONARDO, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. 159-166, 1984 159



II. HEURISTIC

ODYSSETRON is a four-phase series of processes and physical structures whose ultimate objective is the first robotic marine circumnavigation of the earth.

The processes are marine voyages; the

physical structures are modules designed to carry out those voyages. Module launchings are scheduled over several years in various regions of the world. Figure 1 indicates the essential features of all four phases. Each of the first three phases will influence certain aspects of subsequent phases.

During Phase I of the project, launched in 1980, 100 free-floating, geometrically rationalized, anthropomorphic modules were deployed in the San Francisco Bay waterways of California. These modules carry graphic information which, in part, pertains to the time and location of their deployment. (Phase I is described in detail in a subsequent section of this paper.)

Phase II focuses on the launching of numerous solar-powered, free-floating modules in a geographically expanded water system. Each module, carrying both solar-powered radio and audio transmitters, will periodically transmit information relating to its origin and to the overall project. Encoded in electronic music, this information will be audible and radio-receivable by all life forms in its range of transmission. OD YSSETRON II is currently in the prototype stage.

Plans for Phase III include another launching of multiple modules, each capable of receiving as well as transmitting information. Linking these capabilities within individual modules will make each a two-way communicator. ODYSSETRON III modules, anchored along the circumnavigation route planned for Phase IV, will test the appropriateness of the route and herald the forthcoming robot.

Phase IV will consist of a single solar- powered module, which will be an operational cybernetic navigating system. It will have communication and pro- pulsion capabilities, as well as the intelligence to circumnavigate the earth's waters on a prescribed course. This robotic craft will navigate with assistance from the satellite-based NAVSTAR Global Positioning System (GPS) scheduled for completion around 1990 [1, 2]. ODYSSETRON IV's activities will not be remotely controllable but will be monitored. Once afloat, it will be entirely on its own.

III. CONTEXT

In 1979, after 10 years of working on static and kinetic sculptural constructions

[3,4], I began searching for a more

comprehensive approach to my work. I saw my previous work as a sometimes piecemeal sequence of distilled, minimal images. Its primary residual value seemed to be a personal meta-language of forms, materials and ideas.

I sought to use this meta-language in a work of expanded scope. In literary terms, I was ready to write a novel rather than more short stories. When the notion of robotic circumnavigation-the embryo of ODYSSETRON-occurred to me, I realized it contained the nucleus of a ready-made adventure story and could support a complex conceptual treatment. However, the project seemed impossibly difficult. I pursued it only passively for a year, during which I tried to conceive ways to organize the work so it would be feasible yet comprehensive enough to address several issues. The four-stage project scheme ensued.

OD YSSETRON is designed to expand my work, both physically and socially, beyond the confines of the studio/ laboratory environment. While I enjoy and will continue constructing objects, I want the context in which they function to extend beyond the limits of the art culture-as well as beyond national geo- graphical boundaries. My sensibilities are

more artistic than scientific, yet I need to investigate as well as assert, to work in a

hybrid realm which encourages synthesis. The initial robotic circumnavigation

notion developed into the concepts underlying a far more complex work. The project now binds several issues and arenas of activity which are of compelling importance to me and in certain instances, I believe, critical to the planetary society. They include the synthesis of art, science and technology; the environment and planetary cooperation; robotics and artificial intelligence; and the nature of the designing process. Following is a brief discussion of these matters and how they relate to ODYSSETRON (see Fig. 2).

Synthesis of Art, Science and Technology Art and science have grown increasingly

separate from each other since the Renaissance. Specialization has amplified this separation. The two arenas have developed independent sets of languages, concepts, histories and mythologies. Driven by proliferating new technologies, information and activity in both spheres abound at the extremities of the heirarchical tree of knowledge and experience. However, little attention is given to connections at the root of the tree. Not only is humanity in general

OO'SSETRFo0

Figure 2. OD YSSETRON Context. Homer's Odyssey provides the narrative essence of this work. The designing process provides a common link to three major areas of concern.

Rogers, ODYSSETRON 160



increasingly distanced from art and science, but the practitioners themselves are more and more isolated from each other.

ODYSSETRON is an attempt to synergize traditional cultural niches by investigating connections as well as distinctions. It uses forms, processes, languages and conventions that are sometimes artistic, sometimes scientific. It is an attempt to reach goals and answer questions, and at the same time an attempt to present ambiguities and pose questions. It is both literal and meta- phorical.

Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Artists and scientists have long taken

an interest in robotics and the possibilities of machine intelligence [5-10]. Much of science fiction centers around these subjects. Machines which act like human beings and human beings who act like machines have traditionally stimulated

diverse emotional responses, from pleasure to fear. Machines have had a potent impact on civilization, although their actual roles so far have largely been limited to making routine chores easier, faster or safer.

As machines have become more sophisticated, human beings have had to struggle continuously to maintain a sense of their own superiority and control. However, a new juncture has been reached. Machines have begun to possess 'intelligence' and perform extremely complex functions once thought to be the sole province of human beings. We necessarily and increasingly wonder what our new identities will be.

This project explores concepts relating to this growing identity crisis, both through its four-phase evolution and through the robot circumnavigator of its final phase. The phylogeny of OD YSSETRON's intelligence echoes that of the organism, progressing from simple

to complex in organizational structure. The module 'intelligence' evolves from information storage in Phase I, to information transmission in Phase II, to communication in Phase III, to a final cybernetic state in Phase IV.

ODYSSETRON IV will be a robot. It will have evolved from the first three phases to become an electromechanical intelligence, the first robot to re-enact, in essence, the myth of the classical Odyssey. It connects to some of the prophetic views Jack Burnham expounded 15 years ago in his final chapter of Beyond Modern Sculpture [11]. Speaking on the recursive nature of art and life, he wrote, "Art, then, and the whole image-making drive may be means for preparing man for physical and mental changes which he will in time make upon himself," adding, "As the drama of self-awareness and scientific discovery unfolds, we near a point where self-inflicted evolution becomes an imminent possibility."

Figure 3. Geometrical basis of Phase I modules. The dimensions are all based upon the single radius R. The humanoid form will evolve through the four phases of the project.

Rogers, ODYSSETRON

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ODYSSETRON I Form Construction Information Information

Figure 4. Construction specifications for Phase I modules. 100 modules were launched in the San Francisco Bay-Sacramento River waterways in California in 1980.

The Environment and Planetary Cooperation

If the quest of the small craft of Phase IV is to be realized, many nations must

cooperate and assist. ODYSSETRON must become a global event, an inter- national endeavor whose spirit captures imaginations across ideological lines. Such cooperation in a nonmilitary venture can increase cooperation in the management of life-supporting global resources, indeed in the co-evolution of life and the planet.

The ill-advised use of certain advanced technologies causes some of the more pronounced abuses of the biosphere, threatening its capacity to support life. Nuclear weapons portend the most dire and unthinkable of such consequences. ODYSSETRON is designed as a benign application of advanced technologies. Stage by stage it employs a greater degree of these technologies, from solar-powered information transmission to computer- based navigation.

Like the earth and its inhabitants, ODYSSETRON is extremely vulnerable. It is conceived as a meta-model for

planetary cooperation and environmental awareness-a requiem for national isola- tion and planetary resource exploitation.

The Nature of the Designing Process Designing is the conceptual glue for the

issues raised in ODYSSETRON. The environment is becoming increasingly human-designed; robotics and artificial

intelligence represent pinnacles of

designing; and art, science and technology all use the common vocabulary of

designing. Designing is an attempt to order future

relationships between process and structure. It has special value when

approaching either new or complex tasks. Designing can also provide a framework, relatively free from historical style, for organizing and understanding activity at its inception. It does not map the future; it creates structures for intended possibilities.

OD YSSETR ON investigates the designing process; it examines the relationship between articulated inten- tions and unforeseeable occurrences in an evolving context. Because of that evolution in a long-term work, vast

differences tend to exist between

anticipated and actual results. Since evolutionary information is

passed through populations of forms rather than single forms, the first three

phases of ODYSSETRON consist of

multiple-form launchings. The first three

phases may be viewed as a sequence of encoded flotillas dispersing entropically from initially ordered formations of modules as well as from randomly selected sites. Random selection is included because, as Gregory Bateson

points out in Mind and Nature, "In contrast with epigenesis and tautology, which constitute the worlds of replication, there is the whole realm of creativity, art, learning, and evolution, in which the ongoing process of change feeds on the random" [12].

The modules await chance encounters, both human and environmental, to be decoded and/or reordered. The collective feedback from these encounters will play a role in the design and realization of Phase IV. Thus, the process OD YSSETRON is, in the largest sense, a 'user-designed' circumnavigation.


IM'II r- r '



I call this work a 'cybernautical metamodel'. The first of these words is a composite derived from the obvious content of the project; the second relates to the interaction of the designing process with an evolving context. Christopher Alexander, in Notes on the Synthesis of Form, defines the designing process as fitting a form to a context [13]. I am working with a meta-level of this definition, fitting a process to a context- a spiritual/social/environmental context. Conceptually, this turns the process ODYSSETRON into a form.

The Odyssey-A Contemporary Design Analogue

Relating Homer's Odyssey to OD YSSETRON provides the opportunity to speculate on the general nature of the designing process. In literary terms Odysseus was the archetypal hero, leaving home on a glorious quest, encountering both adversity and good fortune before his return. As a designer, Homer orchestrated a goal-oriented series of events to bring Odysseus back to where he started. He instilled in Odysseus a propelling design 'force' having both direction and magnitude; the direction was homeward, and the magnitude great enough to fuel the overall circuit. The form of the journey was determined by the interaction of the force with the evolving context.

Much of the wisdom and magic of The Odyssey derives from the circularity of the journey, including its early stages in The Iliad. The origin-seeking design force moves forward in time and backward in space. Home, or the thought of home, provides a context for the form of the adventures; in the same way, the adventures provide a context for the form of the return home. The journey points out the universal difficulties involved in any return 'home'. In reality, the return of an unchanged entity to an unchanged point of origin is possible only in certain abstractions of physics. However, we can speculate on the intent, the idea and the model of the return without regard to physical laws. We can also view the return as a bearing of witness, an attempt to verify that the evolutionary journey occurred-in design process terms, an attempt to reference actual experience to assumed standards (of home). Connected to this, the process ODYSSETRON investigates both its own origin-seeking 'force' and the effect of the comprehensive context on the form of the journey.

With these factors in mind, one can view both Odysseus and ODYSSETRON IV as being transported to their destinations by external forces. Given

their likenesses and differences, one can ask what, in essence, the two travelers are transporting to the future. I postulate that it is intelligence-the ability to collect, retain and use information. In this connection I define design, in a general sense, as a retrospectively filtered force, directed forward in time and attempting to manifest intelligence within a future and necessarily unknown (though perhaps imagined) context. Design is nature's way of promoting/ ensuring (in this era through human agency) the survival and evolution of intelligence.

IV. THE FIRST PHASE

The initial specifications for Phase I stipulated only that the modules carry or store information, functioning like 'notes in a bottle'. The first step in the physical implementation of the project was to design and build a prototype module. Since I 'wanted all aspects of the first phase to be simple, I began to develop the prototype by assembling various standard wooden forms, both round and rectilinear. This process immediately resulted in objects with anthropomorphic proportions. I was chagrined by the similarity of these forms to classical sculpture, yet the

*NEfIm

Figure 5. Information panels carried by Phase I modules. The top panel depicts the four phases of the overall project. The bottom panel indicates the characteristics of Phase I, including the approximate launching area for groupings of the 100 numbered modules. It also shows a return address so finders can

report discoveries.

Having postulated that definition of design, I will speculate that nature doesn't necessarily care what form intelligence assumes-organic, electromechanical or other. A corollary of this thesis is that the co-evolution of intelligence and the planetary context may or may not require a biosphere. ODYSSETRON will tacitly consider this speculation as it wanders into the future on its own.

Believing this project to be a viable means for me to investigate the issues discussed above, I began the first phase.

anthropomorphic form became a key element in coalescing the project's overall concept. I determined that the module in Phase I would take a humanoid form, evolving into more complex (perhaps less 'human') forms dictated by the con-

ceptual function of the modules in each

succeeding phase. With the geometric basis of the

modules established by the nature of the standard wooden shapes, I fixed their exact geometry-by making all pertinent dimensions functions of a single radius, as indicated in Fig. 3.

Rogers, OD YSSETRON 163



The module was designed to withstand the severe marine environment it would encounter. One hundred modules were constructed (see specifications in Fig. 4), and each was numbered. The six wooden components for each module were cut, sanded to uniformity, and then joined with epoxy glue. Once the forms were assembled, they were given three coats of a durable two-component epoxy paint. The color yellow was selected because of its high visibility in the water. Multi- colored information panels, as shown in Fig. 5, were inserted into routed areas on either side of the central rectangular panel in each module and covered with a layer of clear epoxy resin.

The top panel depicts the overall project, with symbols for each stage, and includes symbology reflecting my earlier work. The lower panel presents information about Phase I, including the launching date and the launching locations according to module number. It also includes a graphic representation of the module's geometrical basis. In addition, a post office box return address is included to encourage people who find the

',

9 -. -_ . _

Figure 6. Phase I module. 13.75" x 12.5" x 1.4". Of the 100 modules launched, nearly one-third have been reported discovered. (Photograph by Barbara Gatov and Russell Booth.)

Figure 7. San Francisco Bay launching pattern for modules numbered 1 through 23. These modules were launched by boat. The remaining modules were launched from the shore, bridges and moving autos.




fi

Figure 8. Phase I launching vessel. The mainsail was painted with a yellow facsimile of the Phase I module. (Photograph by Barbara Gatov and Russell Booth.)

modules to report their discoveries. A photograph of a module, indicating its scale, is shown in Fig. 6.

The modules were launched over a two-week period in late 1980 in a series of events. The most ambitious launching was staged on San Francisco Bay where modules numbered 1 through 23 were distributed (see Fig. 7) in a circular pattern. Modules 24 through 30 were randomly distributed in the same area. Two sailboats were used; one to dis- tribute the modules, the other to document the event. The mainsail of the first was painted with a large yellow form with proportions identical to those of the modules (see Fig. 8).

The remaining 70 modules were launched along the hundred-mile course of the Sacramento River, which feeds into San Francisco Bay, and in the numerous canals and rivers which make up the complex delta region of this water system.

To date, letters addressed to the post office box have reported discovery of one-third of the modules-a rate of response that far exceeded my expecta- tions. Letters have ranged from minimal efforts giving no information about the finder or the place of discovery, to letters full of interest and speculation. When a discovery letter is received, the finder is sent information about the project and a questionnaire pertaining to the discovery and the condition of the module. So far, nearly all questionnaires have been completed and returned. Finders are invited to keep the module.

At this point, all reported discoveries have occurred either within the inland water system where the modules were launched or along the Northern California coast beyond the Golden Gate, which connects the inland water system to the Pacific Ocean. A large number of modules surely must have drifted through

the Gate into the Pacific's main circula- tion currents flowing near San Francisco.

The project is being recorded in a number of ways: a documentary film is being produced; a suite of lithographs related to various aspects of Phase I has been completed; and a collection of written and photographic material is being assembled, including documents about module discoveries.

The launching of Phase I converted the project from theory to reality. The associated experiences and continuing responses are now determining the nature of Phase II. Staging ODYSSETRON as a four-phase project of increasing complexity allows the gradual development of technological, financial and organizational skills. Since this work is an ambitious undertaking for an individual, it will necessarily become increasingly collaborative.

V. CONCLUSION

OD YSSETRON's robotic flavor nourishes my sense of the absurd. More seriously, it suggests that while the transcendent forces revealed in The Odyssey continue to operate, the known terrestrial mode of the traditional narrative model is obsolete. For humanity, terrestrial innocence is over. If a robot succeeds in performing the terrestrial circumnavigation, the obsolescence that follows invites new modes for human odysseys. In response, the Grand Design Equation can chart unbounded inward/ outward trajectories for the spirit of intelligence.

ODYSSETRON is becoming my own personal Odyssey. It is leading me into new arenas, and I am wondering why I set myself on this particular course. I contemplate the spiritual and physical dimensions of home, wondering why I left. I know I can never find it again precisely as I left it; yet I did leave, and I continue to search with a return in mind.

Acknowledgements-The author gratefully acknowledges support for this project from the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts, the Frederic Burk Foundation at San Francisco State University, and North Star Computers, Inc. Essential financial backing has been provided by Austin Conkey, Teri Pratali, and Ednah Root of San Francisco. Several individuals have provided indispensable pro- fessional assistance: filmmaker Reuben Aaronson of Washington, D.C.; art-writer Robert Atkins of New York City, editor- writer Stuart Coyne of San Francisco, and artist-printmakers Barbara Foster and Jack Stone at Western Wedge Press in Oakland. Special support has come from artist Robert Herrick of San Francisco, sailor Alan Kalmanoff of Berkeley, artist Cynthi Rice of San Francisco, and artists' champion Michael Smith of Pasadena.

Rogers, OD YSSETRON

i

.0

165



REFERENCES

1. B. Parkinson and S. Gilberg, "NAVSTAR: Global Positioning System -Ten Years Later", IEEE Proceedings, 71, 1177 (1983).

2. T. Stansell, "Civil GPS from a Future Perspective", IEEE Proceedings, 71, 1187 (1983).

3. B. Rogers, "The 'Umbrella Series': Static and Kinetic Constructions", Leonardo, 9, 265-269 (1976).

4. B. Rogers, "'Timepieces': A Series of Static and Kinetic Sculptural Con- structions", Leonardo, 14, 5-12 (1981).

5. J. Clair and H. Szeeman, eds., The Bachelor Machines (New York: Rizzolli, 1975).

6. H. Geduld and R. Gottesman, Robots, Robots, Robots (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1978).

7. R. Malone, The Robot Book (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch, 1978).

8. J. Reichardt, Robots: Fact, Fiction and Prediction (New York: Penguin, 1978).

9. J. Albus, Brains, Behavior and Robotics (Petersborough, New Hampshire: McGraw-Hill/BYTE, 1981).

0. J. Haugeland, ed., Mind Design (Cam- bridge, Massachusetts: M.I.T. Press, 1981).

1. J. Burnham, Beyond Modern Sculpture (New York: Braziller, 1968) p. 373.

2. G. Bateson, Mind and Nature (New York: Dutton, 1979) pp. 47-48.

3. C. Alexander, Notes on the Synthesis of Form (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Univ. Press, 1964).

GLOSSARY

(A number of terms have been used in the text in a manner somewhat tangential to their normal technical context. The conventional meanings of each term most closely approxi- mating that used in the text is given below.)

co-evolution-a system of evolutionary change in which two or more species interact in such a way that changes in one species set the stage for the natural selection of changes in another species.

communication-the science and technology by which information is collected from an originating source, transformed into electric currents or fields, transmitted over electrical networks or space to another point, and re- converted into a form suitable for interpreta- tion by a receiver.

cybernetics-a science founded in the 1940s by a group of scientists and engineers led by N. Weiner and A. Rosenblueth. They coined the word 'cybernetics' (from Greek: pilot, steersman, governor) to designate the science of "control and communication in the animal and the machine".

entropy-the degree to which relations between the components of any aggregate are mixed up, disordered, unsorted, undifferentiated, un- predictable and random. In physics, certain sorts of ordering are related to quantity of available energy.

evolution-any change in the gene pool of a species from one generation to the next. Darwinian evolution is the result of natural selection operating upon random genetic variations. There is often a tendency towards increasing complexity.

heuristic-a rule or procedure, commonly associated with computer programming, used to approach solutions to difficult-to-define

problems. Compared with 'algorithms', which are procedures guaranteed to give results meeting certain conditions, a heuristic is more or less reliable, a kind of 'rule of thumb'.

hierarchy-a system composed of nested subsystems, each of which is hierarchic in structure except when the lowest level of elementary subsystem is reached. Useful in the description of complex systems. Complex systems found in nature frequently show hierarchic structure.

information-data used in decision-making. A quantity which is relative to the situation, to the time at which a decision is made, and to the decision-maker and the decision-maker's background and history.

intelligence-in communication theory-data, information, or messages that are to be transmitted. In psychology-the intellect or astuteness of the mind, the ability to recognize and understand qualities and attributes of the physical world and of humankind, and the ability to solve problems and engage in abstract thought processes.

phylogeny-the evolutionary or ancestral history of organisms.

robotics-the science and technology of robot design and use. The word 'robot' was popularized by Karel Capek's 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots). In popular parlance, a robot is a machine that acts like, and may look somewhat like, a human being. More strictly, a robot is usually a mechanical manipulator and its associated computer control system.

transmission-the process of transferring a signal, message, picture or other forms of intelligence from one location to another often using some type of electromagnetically based system.




"odyssetron": a cybernautical metamodel: the robotic, marine circumnavigation of the earth

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