Hi. I'm Shasta.
I'm helping humans and robots understand each other.
I'm a quadruped robot traveling around town with the team at Custom Robotics of La Jolla.
That device I'm wearing? That's Skollar™—technology being developed to help communicate what a robot is doing to the people around it.
And you're part of the experiment.
Not Your Average Dog Walk.
Shasta is the nickname Dave Skillin, founder of Custom Robotics of La Jolla, gave to the quadruped he's using to test Skollar™ in real-world environments.
Instead of keeping Shasta inside a lab, Dave is taking her into the places where people actually live, work, and interact.
Why?
Because robots don't only need to function around people. People need to understand the robots around them.
- Walk around.
- Meet people.
- Test Skollar.
- Make a few friends.
- Help us learn.
Check Out My Skollar™
Robots already generate enormous amounts of information about what they're doing. But most of that information stays inside the machine or on a dashboard.
Skollar™ is being developed to help change that. Mounted directly on a robot, Skollar is designed to translate robot status and intent into clear visual signals that people nearby can understand.
Tell you a car is stopping.
Tell you where it's going.
Tell you when it's safe to move.
As robots begin sharing more of our world, we believe they need an understandable way to communicate too.
What Did You Wonder When You Saw Shasta?
Does it see me?
Is it stopping?
Where is it going?
What is it doing?
Is it safe to approach?
What will it do next?
Those questions are exactly why Shasta is out here.
A robot may understand its environment. The environment still needs to understand the robot.
That's the problem CRLJ is working to solve.
Transforming Robot Intent into Human Understanding™ →Because Real People Don't Live in Robotics Labs.
A controlled environment can tell us whether technology works. The real world helps us understand whether people understand it.
Shasta gives the CRLJ team an opportunity to observe how people naturally respond to a robot in shared spaces—and how visual communication can make those interactions clearer and more intuitive.
Every walk gives us another opportunity to learn.
What Did You Think When You Saw Me?
Want to tell us what you thought?
Share it with us on Instagram using #ShastaTheRobot.See Shasta Around Town?
Take a photo or video and tag us.
#ShastaTheRobot
Spot Shasta
Say hello. She doesn't bite.
Snap a photo
Capture Shasta and her Skollar.
Tag us
Use #ShastaTheRobot and tag CRLJ.
Using Humanity to Foster Robotics™
Robots are becoming more capable and more present in the places where people live and work.
CRLJ believes technological capability alone won't determine whether people embrace them.
Understanding will.
We're developing The Empathy Layer for Robotics™—technology intended to help transform robot intent into human understanding and support greater trust between people, robots, and the organizations deploying them.
Shasta is one small, four-legged part of that much bigger mission.
Every Test Dog Needs a Human.
Shasta's human is Dave Skillin, founder and CEO of Custom Robotics of La Jolla.
Dave is an inventor who has spent much of his career thinking about a deceptively simple question:
How can advanced technology work better for actual people?
Today he's applying that thinking to robotics—and occasionally walking around town with a robot dog.
Follow Shasta's Journey.
She's testing.
We're learning.
Robots are coming.
Let's make sure humans understand them.