Here, Norman White uses the „intelligence“ of his computers to bring his sculptures to life. Initially very limited in their radius of action and range of conceivable tasks – in the case of Helpless Robot a horizontal turn is the only possibility –, in the meantime the robots that White constructs are capable of participating, for example, in the regular Sumo Robot Challenges.
(Herzogenrath & Lähnemann 2009:11)
This robot is not longer in existence.
It originally conceived in 1985 for the Cité des science et de l’índustrie in the Parc de la Villette in Paris for a Zoo des Robots being set up there, the work’s software was programmed by White during a period as artist-in-residence at the Open University in Milton Keynes, England, in 1986.
In the following year he constructed the robot’s external stucture; it was exhibited for the first time in Totonto in 1988.
(Herzogenrath & Lähnemann 2009:24f.)
Please compare Helpless Robot (second). It is the striking modification over the years.