The fifth ArtBots exhibition, running at Trinity College Dublin from 19–21 September, aims to challenge the traditional view of robots by showing that they can be art.

Just 15 of the 100 robots submitted have made this year's cut. Pete Redmond's RuBot II comes closest to what most expect a robot to be. With its humanoid torso, webcam eyes and pneumatic arms, the robot can solve a Rubik's cube in an average of 35 seconds.

Many of the works displayed subvert such stark efficiency. Allison Kudla's fragile-looking The Search For Luminosity frames six Oxalis plants with high-tech sensors and lights. When the plants raise their leaves looking for the expected Sun, a system of sensors turns on the exhibit's lights to provide sustenance. “The idea is about questioning and dismantling the hierarchy between the biological and the physical,” says Kudla.

Other robots in the show look like they might date from before the Industrial Revolution. The most striking example is Ralf Baecker's Rechnender Raum ('Calculating Space'; pictured). “All the logic gates like and/or/not are formed by levers, strings and weights,” explains Baecker. These units are connected by strings that communicate digital signals: a pulled string equals 1, a loose string equals 0. Through these strings, each cell in the framework receives and transmits instructions to neighbouring cells, resulting in a huge, primitive computer that sits and calculates with no regard to the viewer.

The show also features a panel discussion titled 'Are we living in a robotic cargo cult?'. Participants will discuss how ArtBot projects can confront the issue of whether current and future robots are “shaped by unrealistic and potentially de-humanizing science fiction fantasies”. Their conclusions will feed in to an EU-funded project, Living with Robots and Interactive Companions.