英国皇家科学院圣诞讲座：让火花飞（2014）

This is a swarm of robots that can make images and animations
我们接下来将看到的是
and what we're about to see is
《宇宙的故事》
the Story of the Universe as told
由机器人像素集群讲述 时长两分钟
by the PixelBots all in two minutes.
我们把每个机器人看成一个像素
So the way to think of it is each robot is like one pixel
而这次的演出由五十个像素完成
and what we've got here is a display with 50 pixels.
好的
OK, so...
我们看到它们在动了 保罗 它们在干嘛
We're seeing something happening here, Paul, what's going on?
我们现在看到的是《宇宙的故事》
So now we're seeing the Story of the Universe
由机器人像素集群讲述
told by the PixelBots
首先是大爆♥炸♥
and it started with the Big Bang
然后我们有了太阳系 当然这里是缩略版
and now we've gone to the solar system, an abbreviated version.
这是太阳 这是地球和月亮
Here's the sun, here's the Earth and here's the moon
接下来我们会看到
and what we're going to see is
鱼出现了 然后是恐龙
a fish appear and then a dinosaur
还出现了人类
and then a human
这就是缩略版的宇宙的历史
and that's the history of the universe in an abbreviated form.
由机器人像素集群讲述的宇宙历史 太棒了
History of the universe by PixelBots. Brilliant.
那他们会 我看到有几个撞到了
And do they...? I see there's a couple of them colliding.
他们会经常这样撞到别的机器人吗
Do they often collide?
这也是我们想要解决的问题
Well, this is one of the things we've worked on
就是避免碰撞
is collision avoidance.
如果你有一群机器人
So if you've got a swarm of robots,
并且想让他们进入世界
you want them to go out into the world,
你不会想让他们撞到彼此或是别人
you don't want them to collide with each other or people.
这些只是小机器人 所以就算
These are little robots and so we forgive them
犯了点小错 我们也会原谅他们的
if they make a few mistakes,
所以有时会有碰撞的情况发生
so you will see a few collisions happen.
是的 当然 那他们是怎么交流的呢
Yes, absolutely. So how are they communicating?
我注意到这里也是有一些天线的
I notice you've got some antennas just over here, as well.
是的
Yes, that's right.
这套系统运作的原理就是这上面有个相机
So the way this system works is there's a camera above here
相机跟电脑相连接
and that's connected to this computer.
电脑知道我们想要做什么样的图像
The computer knows the images we want to create,
它还在计算怎样避免碰撞
it's also computing the collision avoidance
然后把无线指令发送到这里
and it then sends wireless commands here
然后再发送到每个机器人身上
and they go to each individual robot.
就相当于我们在说
So we're saying,
机器人一号♥走这儿 机器人二号♥走这儿
"Robot one, go here. Robot two, go here."
之类的
And so on.
太棒了 这是变成恐龙了
Excellent. And we're seeing a dinosaur here.
-这是我们的恐龙 -好的 太棒了
- That's our dinosaur, yeah. - OK. Brilliant. OK.
接下来 当然 进化将人类
And then of course, evolution will give us man
-带到了现在 -当然
- at the end here. - Of course.
再进一步就是机器人 图像也会再改变
One step beyond is robots, and the image will reform.
我想要个人来帮我下
Well, I think I'd quite like to get a volunteer,
有人自告奋勇吗
so how about a volunteer?
你怎么样 那个穿灰色套头衫的 对
How about you, there with the grey jumper? Yeah.
-你叫什么名字 -乔斯林
- OK, what's your name? - Jocelyn.
乔斯林 好的 乔斯林
Jocelyn. OK, Jocelyn.
我想让你试着拿走这个身体的一部分
What I want you to do is try picking up part of the body,
拿走一个像素机器人
a PixelBot,
假设它是一个淘气的像素机器人
and pretending it's a naughty PixelBot
然后把它放到那里 就放到其它地方去就好
and put it over there. Just move it out of the way.
好 我们拿走个腿上的看看
OK. Let's take a leg.
看看会发生什么
See what happens.
所以可以看到 它们在将缺口补上
So you can see, they are actually all compensating for it.
所以现在 腿就变成了手
So that's now... The leg has just become the hand.
我们逗逗它玩玩 乔斯林
Let's try and trick it, Jocelyn.
我们拿走两三个试试
Let's take two or three.
腿上拿走几个 身体那块也拿一个
So move a couple of the legs and a body.
绿的也拿一个
Get a green one as well.
好 脚上也拿一个
Yeah, get a foot as well.
对 然后再扔下去
Right, and then plonk them down.
我们看看他们是怎么回去的
Let's see how they get on.
这真是太神奇了 保罗 所以你可以看到
Wow, this is amazing, Paul. So you can see that...
他们想要移♥动♥ 且不仅如此
They want to move and then not only that,
他们还可以变色
they can actually change colour.
所以组成脚的部分可以变成手或手臂
So the foot has now become either a hand or an arm...
剩余部分都可以做替补
And the rest of the body has compensated for it.
-是的 -真是太神奇了
- That's right. - That's amazing.
我觉得我们可比不过它 你说呢 乔斯林
I don't think we can outsmart it, Jocelyn, can we?
的确比不过 但真的很棒
Unfortunately not. But that's brilliant.
非常感谢你 乔斯林 也谢谢你 保罗
Thank you very much, Jocelyn, and thank you, Paul.
但遗憾的是 像素群机器人对于键盘手的
Now, sadly, the PixelBots are a little bit too small
位置来说 还是太小了点
for our keyboard players
所以普利茅斯大学贡献出了
so the University of Plymouth have donated
他们机器人足球队的部分成员给我们
part of their robot football team to the cause.
它们来了
And here they are.
这些小伙伴刚从中国
These little fellows have just come back
踢完足球回来
from playing football in China.
这六个机器人彼此之间
These six robots are able to
可以互相传递信息
share information between themselves.
所以当它们收到演奏指令
So when they get an instruction to play a note,
比如弹奏某个音
say a key on a keyboard,
这条指令会传给所有的六个机器人
the message is passed to all six robots
然后离那个键最近的机器人就会弹奏
and the closest robot to that key will play it.
眼尖的《神秘博士》粉应该已经注意到了
Eagle-eyed Doctor Who fans will have noticed
这些机器人都打扮成了
that they have all come dressed
博士在不同时期的化身
as different incarnations of the Doctor himself.
我最喜欢这个
I think this one's my favourite,
有条围巾的这个
with the little scarf here.
我们还是听听他们弹得怎么样吧
But let's hear them in action.
还不错
Oh, that was pretty good!
有一点小小的瑕疵
That was slightly imperfect,
但我觉得搭《神秘博士》还不错
but not bad for some Doctor Whos, I think.
我觉得这很好
Now I think that is pretty good
因为我们的乐队基本组建完成了
because our orchestra is almost complete.
讲座刚开始的时候
Towards the start of the lecture,
我说过这些机器人都会由
I mentioned robots would be all controlled
MIDI传输的实时信息进行控制
using MIDI information sent to each robot in real time
告诉他们应该怎么演奏
that would tell them what to play.
好的 既然我们已经有了这么多机器人了
Well, once we'd gathered this many robots,
感觉时机已到
we felt the time was right
来把它们聚在一起试着演奏一下
to plug them all together and try it out.
所以我们能听到的
So what we should be able to hear
应该是两天前
is what we heard two days ago,
我们机器人乐队初次彩排时的曲子
at the first rehearsal of our robot orchestra
这是我们之前的视频
and here is some footage we have.
我们把所有机器人连起来 然后
We connected everything together and...
-你们想听吗 -想
- Do we want to hear it? - Yes!
先说好啊 听着不咋地 音乐起
I warn you, it's not pretty... Here it goes.
大家怎么看
What do we think?
不知道你们怎么想
Now, I'm not sure about you,
反正我觉得不太像我印象中的《神秘博士》
but it didn't quite sound like the Doctor Who theme tune
主题曲的曲调
I've got in my head.
但似乎又有那么一点味道
But it's sort of in there somewhere, I think.
可是效果不理想 是哪里出了错呢
But it wasn't great, so what was going wrong?
就算我们让机器人在同一时间
Although we were telling all the robots to play their notes
演奏各自的音符
at exactly the same time,
总有几个机器人的反应时间会稍长
some robots were taking slightly longer to play their notes
而其它机器人速度却很快
while others were doing it very quickly.
这种间隔被称为"延迟"
This gap is called latency
它会让乐队的演奏不合拍
and it makes the orchestra sound out of time.
所以我们不得不逐一检查
So we had to go round every robot
计算每个机器人演奏音符的延迟时间
and calculate how long to the nearest millisecond
并精确到毫秒
it took each robot to play a note.
接着我们要将这些数据记入乐谱
We then had to work out those figures into the score,
即我们要给一些机器人提示
meaning we'd cue some robots to play
比其它机器人早演奏零点几秒
a fraction of a second before the others
这样一来 当我们听到成品时