Herbert the homeless robot — he likes cans.

As a final project, we created a robot that addresses the theme of homelessness, focusing specifically on the sense of struggle it entails. The need for shelter and protection is an innate part of being a living creature. Unlike robots, which do not consciously experience such needs, humans uniquely suffer from the absence of a home due to how our society is built and must struggle to survive under these conditions. This vulnerability, and the emotional and physical hardship that comes with it, is therefore an experience exclusive to human beings.

In our creation, we aimed to portray this struggle by designing a battered and worn robot with a disheveled cardboard shell. This shell references the cardboard boxes that homeless people are often portrayed as living in. Additionally, the robot pulls a container filled with cans and plastic bottles, which can be exchanged for deposit money (“statiegeld”). For the robot, this money represents the means to obtain a battery charge—its equivalent of food—highlighting the parallel between human survival needs and those of a machine.