Question 1

How did you solve real-time collision avoidance for 15 robot arms operating in close proximity?

Accepted Answer

This was the most safety-critical challenge in the entire project. We implemented a hierarchical collision avoidance system operating at three levels. The strategic level uses a spatial occupancy grid updated at 100 Hz to plan macro-movements and reserve space corridors. The tactical level runs continuous swept-volume intersection checks between arm trajectories using simplified geometric models. The reactive level operates on raw joint encoder data with a hard safety boundary, if any two arms approach within 5 cm of each other, both immediately enter a safe deceleration profile. The key innovation was a priority-based motion scheduling system where arms negotiate movement windows, allowing complex choreographies without deadlocks while guaranteeing that the safety envelope is never violated.

Question 2

What was the most challenging aspect of synchronizing content across 15 displays while the arms are in motion?

Accepted Answer

Content needs to appear seamless across displays that are constantly changing their relative positions and orientations in 3D space. We built a virtual canvas system where content is authored in a continuous coordinate space and dynamically projected onto each physical display based on its real-time pose. The system accounts for perspective correction, edge blending between adjacent displays, and content priority when displays overlap from certain viewing angles. The hardest part was maintaining visual continuity during rapid reconfiguration. We solved this with predictive rendering that pre-computes content for the next 200 ms of planned motion, so there is never a frame where the content does not match the physical layout.

Question 3

How does the gesture and spatial interaction system work in practice?

Accepted Answer

The perception pipeline fuses data from an array of depth cameras and LiDAR sensors to build a real-time volumetric model of all humans in the space. From this model, we extract skeletal tracking, hand pose estimation, and gesture recognition using a custom-trained neural network optimized for low latency. What makes our approach unique is the concept of "interaction volumes", invisible spatial zones around each display and between displays that respond to different types of human presence. Walking near a display might trigger it to orient toward you; reaching out activates direct manipulation mode; stepping between two displays might cause them to part and reveal a third. The interaction vocabulary is fully configurable through the choreography editor, allowing researchers to experiment with new spatial interaction paradigms.

Question 4

What unexpected challenges did you encounter when moving from simulation to the physical installation?

Accepted Answer

The gap between simulation and reality was humbling. Three major surprises: First, thermal management, 15 robot arms running continuously generate significant heat, which affects both motor precision and display color accuracy. We implemented temperature-aware motion planning that subtly adjusts trajectories to distribute thermal load across joints. Second, acoustic design, 15 moving arms create a non-trivial soundscape that interfered with voice interaction. We developed active noise profiling so the voice recognition system dynamically adapts to the current mechanical noise floor. Third, floor vibration, simultaneous arm movements induced resonance patterns in the floor that affected the precision of other arms. We implemented vibration-aware scheduling that avoids resonant movement combinations, which required modeling the mechanical properties of the installation space itself.

Robotics Arms Orchestration

Orchestration System

Perception and Interaction

Content System

Applications

Follow Up Questions

How did you solve real-time collision avoidance for 15 robot arms operating in close proximity?

What was the most challenging aspect of synchronizing content across 15 displays while the arms are in motion?

How does the gesture and spatial interaction system work in practice?

What unexpected challenges did you encounter when moving from simulation to the physical installation?

Next
Challenge

Operational Transformation Algorithms

Orchestration System

Perception and Interaction

Content System

Applications

Follow Up Questions

How did you solve real-time collision avoidance for 15 robot arms operating in close proximity?

What was the most challenging aspect of synchronizing content across 15 displays while the arms are in motion?

How does the gesture and spatial interaction system work in practice?

What unexpected challenges did you encounter when moving from simulation to the physical installation?

NextChallenge

Next
Challenge