Robots

From 2 April 2019

To adapt to their environment, robots need to be able to sense, move, manipulate and communicate. This capacity for autonomy makes them extraordinary machines. What exactly is a robot? How does this fascinating machine work? What can a robot be used for? Will robots change our daily lives? Are we ready to accept them?

The exhibition

The permanent "Robots" exhibition, divided into six main sections, allows you to grasp the challenges of contemporary robotics, interact with real robots and tackle the major issues linked to their arrival in our daily lives.

Practical informations

  • 13 € | 10 € | Our prices

  • Audience aged 11 years and up

  • Trilingual exhibition (French, English, Spanish)

  • The Cité is open from Tuesday to Saturday 10.00 am - 6.00 pm and 10.00 am - 7.00 pm on Sunday.
    Free audioguide

Accessibility

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Prepare for your visit

Small strollers are allowed in the museum: ramps and elevators allow access to all exhibition areas.

Visit us

  • Robot, or not?

    Familiarize yourself with the concept of a robot and discover the technical features that distinguish a simple machine from a real robot. For example, an everyday object such as an elevator door, whose sensors prevent it from closing unexpectedly, is a robot. Can you tell what's a robot and what isn't?

    Nicolas Breton / © Universcience

  • Draw me a robot

    Equipped with cameras, gyroscopes and other sensors, robots can adapt to their environment. Algorithms process the information they perceive, make decisions and send instructions to their motors. In response to its surroundings, a robot can thus make movements and carry out tasks. This ability sets it apart from other machines. In this part of the exhibition, learn how a robot works and discover how, over the years, robots have become increasingly autonomous.

    Ronan Thenadey / © Universcience

  • Robots in the lab!

    Find out how roboticists work to find ways of helping robots accomplish their tasks. Whether it's replacing or assisting humans in arduous tasks, adapting to them to serve them better, exploring inaccessible worlds... And if you think it's easy to make a robot walk on two legs, think again!

    Ronan Thenadey / © Universcience

  • Living with robots?

    Progress in robotics is fascinating, but sometimes disconcerting, even worrying. There have been improvements in industrial applications, surgery, the automotive industry, aviation, personal services... These developments open up great prospects for collaboration between robots and humans.
    Beyond utopian dreams and irrational fears, this part of the exhibition aims to demystify robots and help us understand them better, so that we can use them wisely.

    Arnaud Robin / © Universcience

  • The robotics show

    To conclude the exhibition, we invite you to reflect on your own relationship with robots. What representations do you have of them, and how much do you accept these exceptional machines? You'll also have the chance to explore robotics in a broader sense, discovering amateur practices and taking an interest in current events and professions.

    Elsa Laurent / © Universcience

  • TROBO by Aurélien Bory

    At the heart of the exhibition, two robots try to put the large letters making up the word ROBOT in the right order, but never succeed. As the piece progresses, the two robots collaborate or, on the contrary, oppose each other. At times impressive, at times burlesque, their actions sketch out a dance in which the great precision of the machines is contrasted with imperfection and nonsense...

    Nicolas Breton / © Universcience

Around the exhibition

The book

What is a robot? How does it work? How is research progressing, what are the challenges and the economic and social questions posed by robotics in the twenty-first century?

  • Robots - the book of the exhibition

    Robots - the book of the exhibition

    Today, as robots are becoming increasingly present in our professional, public and private lives, it is vital to understand their technological capabilities. We must more fully comprehend how they can help us and master their uses. Robots continue to fascinate us but our idea of them, stemming from literature and cinema, is often a purely imaginary one.

    This illustrated book accompanies the Robots exhibition at the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie. It contains links to a series of videos. You can scan their QR codes to watch them online.

    48 pages, 9,95 €

    Buy See an excerpt