--- title: Robots at Tate Britain description: Remote-controlled robots start roaming the Tate Britain tonight at 5 p.m. ET (10 p.m. GMT) canonical: https://time.com/3107640/tate-after-dark-robot-webcam/ author: Anita Hamilton article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-13T18:22:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:12:25.097Z og:title: Remote-Controlled Robots Let You Explore Tate Britain at Night Without Leaving Home og:description: Explore 500 years of art at the Tate Britain at night using your web browser og:url: https://time.com/3107640/tate-after-dark-robot-webcam/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac55c2da8be015dd/69869f60cd804d06ecccc562/0814_tate_ikprize_fullres-0535_2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 0814_tate_ikprize_fullres-0535_2 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Remote-Controlled Robots Let You Explore Tate Britain at Night Without Leaving Home twitter:description: Explore 500 years of art at the Tate Britain at night using your web browser twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac55c2da8be015dd/69869f60cd804d06ecccc562/0814_tate_ikprize_fullres-0535_2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Remote-Controlled Robots Let You Explore Tate Britain at Night Without Leaving Home by [Anita Hamilton](https://time.com/author/anita-hamilton/) ## Anita Hamilton Aug 13, 2014 6:22 PM UTC  After Dark project robot with Jacob Epstein's The Visitation (1926) at Tate Britain After Dark project robot with Jacob Epstein's The Visitation (1926) at Tate BritainAlexey Moskvin—Alexey Moskvin by [Anita Hamilton](https://time.com/author/anita-hamilton/) ## Anita Hamilton Aug 13, 2014 6:22 PM UTC Fancy a trip to the Tate but can’t cross the pond anytime soon? No worries, the venerable British museum is letting anyone with a (Chrome) browser roam its galleries without the pesky crowds or security guards dampening the experience. Just one catch: you can only do it in the dark. Starting tonight at 5 p.m. Eastern (10 p.m. London time), visitors around the globe can log on to the [Tate After Dark](http://afterdark.tate.org.uk/) website and explore the Tate Britain’s collection using internet-controlled robots. (Think Roomba with a webcam at eye level). The four robots — which were designed and engineered by the London-based consultants [The Workers](http://theworkers.net/) with help from space research firm [RAL Space](http://www.stfc.ac.uk/ralspace/default.aspx) — let remote users explore five centuries worth of British art, ranging from Elizabethan portraiture to video works by Gilbert & George, currently on display. “It’s about getting lost in the museum,” says Tommaso Lanza, who co-created the five-night interactive event, which runs through Sunday. “It’s also about fun.” Each of the four robots has seven sonar sensors on board, an off-the-shelf webcam and a hardware encoder. The bots have no sense of direction, so it will be up to the users to navigate the dimly-lit space. “The whole point is that you control it,” using nothing but the arrow keys on your keyboard, says Lanza. Even if you don’t get a chance to “drive,” you can still join in via a livestream on the Tate website [here](http://afterdark.tate.org.uk/#watch-live). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3107640/tate-after-dark-robot-webcam/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3107640/tate-after-dark-robot-webcam/"},"headline":"Remote-Controlled Robots Let You Explore Tate Britain at Night Without Leaving Home","datePublished":"2014-08-13T18:22:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:12:25.097Z","description":"Great way to beat the crowds","url":"https://time.com/3107640/tate-after-dark-robot-webcam/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Technology","Art","london","United Kingdom","Robot","Museum"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac55c2da8be015dd/69869f60cd804d06ecccc562/0814_tate_ikprize_fullres-0535_2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Anita Hamilton","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/anita-hamilton/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac55c2da8be015dd/69869f60cd804d06ecccc562/0814_tate_ikprize_fullres-0535_2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"0814_tate_ikprize_fullres-0535_2","caption":"After Dark project robot with Jacob Epstein's The Visitation (1926) at Tate Britain","creditText":"Alexey Moskvin—Alexey Moskvin","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3107640/tate-after-dark-robot-webcam/","name":"Remote-Controlled Robots Let You Explore Tate Britain at Night Without Leaving Home"}}]}] ```