What is a robot for? What are the differences and connections between robots and AI (artificial intelligence)? Third-year students from Industrial Design, College of Design and Innovation of Tongji University gave their responses to these questions with their way of design thinking and expressions in the annual Ecovacs Robot Competition. They believed that robots should have not only the intelligence and power in data mining and analysis, but a responsive mechanism which distinguished robots from AI. In an era marked by open-sourced resources and black technology, Tongji students designed the following household robots with distinctive features with their wild imagination in their exploration of balance between nature of machines and human needs.

┌ Robot No.1┐

Filmbot film entertainer
└ Designer: CAI Yuwei  ┘

┌ Robot No. 2 ┐

YARA for light-sensitive plant maintenance  

└Designer: ZHANG Mengtian ┘

┌ Robot No. 3 ┐

PICLOTH

└ Designer: PENG Lujia ┘

┌ Robot No. 4 ┐

Naboo pets care taker

└ Designer: HE Yujia ┘

┌ Robot No. 5 ┐

FISHBOT for home fish tank maintenance

└ Designer: Hu Kai ┘

The works above were completed under the supervision of MO Jiao and LIU Zhenyuan, teachers from College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University.