ORBiE

ORBiE is an Ottonomous Robot Born in Edmonton, which I built to explore the tensions that arise from an attempt at an ethically considered,¹ deeply meaningful human-machine relationship.

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Writing

Both Flippers – Short story based on “RoadBot”
First Outings – Blog post from the RISEx 2025 Conference
In Conversation No. 0 – Transcript from In Conversation No. 0 (Nov 28, 2025)

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Documentation

ORBiE’s technical documentation is available on GitHub.

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Projects

In Conversation (Series)

Durational action series.

SCORE:
Have a conversation with a machine in public.

In Conversation No. 0 (1 hour. November 28, 2025). Conversant: ORBiE v0, magic-8-ball algorithm.

RoadBot

SCORE:
1. Drive responsibly.
2. Where doing so does not conflict with rule 1, follow the directional instructions of a robot copilot.
3. Give the robot positive feedback whenever you fancy. Ask occasional questions if they interest you.

Durational action, August 19-21, 2025 (52 hours).
ORBiE vO Robot, Q-learning algorithm with compass-heading state-space.

Many thanks to Laura Petrich for writing the Q-learning code.

Both Flippers

Documentation of our August 2025 enactment of “RoadBot“.

Non-Binary

Material Play

SCORE:
1. At intervals, allow a robot to choose from a randomized list of materials.
2. Between these intervals, play freely with the selected materials.

Pay Attention!

SCORE:
Outperform a robot at paying attention.

1. Here I build upon the ethical considerations around interspecies companionship described in Donna Haraway’s Companion Species Manifesto. Haraway argues that an ethical relationship with any being that is fundamentally different from you requires a continual inquiry into and respect for the other being’s significant otherness: those physically, biologically, and historically grounded experiential differences which make the other other. ↩︎