Semantic Glitch: Agency and Artistry in an Autonomous Pixel Cloud

Qing Zhang, JING HUANG, Mingyang Xu, Jun Rekimoto

Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 38 Creative AI (NeurIPS 2025) Creative AI

While mainstream robotics pursues metric precision and flawless performance, this paper explores the creative potential of a deliberately "lo-fi" approach. We present the "Semantic Glitch," a soft flying robotic art installation whose physical form—a 3D pixel style cloud—is a "physical glitch" derived from digital archaeology. We detail a novel autonomous pipeline that rejects conventional sensors like LiDAR and SLAM, relying solely on the qualitative, semantic understanding of a Multimodal Large Language Model to navigate. By authoring a bio-inspired personality for the robot through a natural language prompt, we create a "narrative mind" that complements the "weak," historically-loaded body. Our analysis begins with a 13-minute autonomous flight log, and a follow-up study statistically validates the framework's robustness for authoring quantifiably distinct personas. The combined analysis reveals emergent behaviors—from landmark-based navigation to a compelling "plan-to-execution" gap—and a character whose unpredictable, plausible behavior stems from a lack of precise proprioception. This demonstrates a lo-fi framework for creating imperfect companions whose success is measured in character over efficiency.