If you found a mini jeep-like device in six wheels roaming around Coachella Valley in Southern California, it must be ShyBot, a solar-powered mobile robot designed to reflect and rethink on the shy behaviour. It was designed by Italian artist Norma Jeane with CODAME, and released in Coachella Valley for the first exhibition of the Desert X on February 25, 2017. The only goal of ShyBot is to always stay away from humans, thus drones are used to track the experiments. We can not only track ShyBot with GPS technology, but this camera-equipped robot can transmit its real-time viewpoint stream to the art gallery The Lab in San Fransisco. The robot does not have the functionality in the traditional sense. It does not serve us, instead, it is programmed with an algorithm that is to run in the opposite direction after sensing the presence of a person immediately. The artist took the dessert as a part of the project, hoping that by understanding shy behavior of an individual, autism or social anxiety disorder can be reflected in a deeper way, which is the first step to help make progress in developing better social interaction.

http://shybot.codame.com