AGENTS
TOWARD PLAYFUL MACHINES AND CURIOUS AGENTS
HRI RESEARCH
BY MILOS ROGLIC
CLIENT
ROLE
TOOLS
YEAR
Museum of the Future, Dubai
Lead Developer in a team of five
Unity, HLSL, Rhino, Houdini, Computational Geometry
2021
The project entailed implementing various geometric optimizations and balancing performance and aesthetics. A challenging aspect was developing a camera management system from scratch to surpass the built-in camera system limitations. Having always been interested in Computational Geometry, I seized the opportunity to take a course in this field while working on the project, which aided in optimizing the real-time generation of asset geometry.
Additionally, I utilized Rhino and Houdini to visually explore potential algorithms for mission trajectories, considering both their random generation and object penetration avoidance.
Below is a glimpse of some of the processes, such as optimizing the style and path of trajectories, various distributions of placeholders on geometry, and collision optimizations.
One of my favorite procrastination techniques is randomly skimming through graphic design or art books. Even though I find most information online by following people I admire, it's those moments of serendipity that I truly value. During this project, I went to a bookstore and flipped through one such book. I came upon this beautiful painting by Crockett Johnson, shown above. After realizing what it was about, it immediately reminded me of my grandfather and the stories that fascinated me as a child. He was a math professor and also a great teacher, known for his interesting stories related to math.
I remember how he described to me the way Eratosthenes measured the Earth's circumference around 200 BC just by using shadows. It seemed so magical to me that one could arrive at such a conclusion using simple geometry. I really love this painting and have it printed as a poster above my desk. For me, it embodies the beauty of geometric abstraction and scientific accuracy, but it also reminds me of my grandfather.
While working on this project, I came across many astronomical phenomena that I thought would be wortwhile to visualize with code, but unfortunately, the deadlines didn't allow for that. Nevertheless, when I ran upon Lagrange points (locations where gravitational forces balance out, making them suitable for “parking” satellites and telescopes), I felt an urge to see those points and forces visualized. This wasn't really part of the project, but I did a quick sketch anyway. I knew it was just about putting gravitational equations and using a few existing filter functions in Processing.
Researching the work of Crockett Johnson, I felt inspired when I learned that he did not have a background in mathematics; instead, he was a children's book illustrator who developed an interest in mathematical concepts in his 60’s, painting over 100 works relating to math and physics.
I would really like to explore these kinds of works.