Bitcraze, KTH Royal Institute of Technology

The Digital Futures Drone Gymnasium is a unique research project designed to evoke the public imagination around the role of technologies in society.

Led by our Academic Partners at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, the Drone Gymnasium investigates how physical and embodied training tools can enhance drone programming and human-drone interaction. Positioned at the crossroads of mobile robotics, autonomous systems, machine learning, and human-computer interaction, the project offers innovative ways to explore and imagine new relationships between humans and robotic systems. The project is led by Professor Kristina Hook (KTH), Professor Luca Mottola (Politecnico di Milano/RISE), Dr Joseph La Delfa (Bitcraze/KTH) and Rachael Garrett (Somabotics: Creatively Embodying AI). It is funded by a 2M SEK Demonstrator Grant through the Digital Futures Research Centre in Stockholm.

The Drone Gymnasium is a place in the future where people can go to explore and invent novel interactions with robots. This space was brought to life for six days in the CCAP dance studio in Stockholm, where a team of researchers and physical interaction design students were invited to reimagine what drones can be and what they can do. The Drone Gymnasium is a space where soma design methods are applied directly to robotics to explore how people can teach intelligent systems through their bodies. The KTH team, in conjunction with Somabotics, is conducting an empirical study to understand how these embodied tools and somatic methods of engagement support learning and aesthetic creativity, with the goal of shaping future human-robot interactions that are inclusive, expressive, and adaptable.

The Drone Gymnasium will continue through 2026 with the goal of sparking public facing dialogue around the ethical, social, and technical dimensions of robotics in everyday life.