En Garde is a robotic art installation in which two industrial arms face one another in a perpetual duel. Each robot wields a pool noodle as a fencing sword, turning an object of childhood play into a tool for improvisational combat. The performance is both absurd and elegant, a choreography that reveals how machines can learn, adapt, and misbehave.

The robots are trained in a custom reinforcement learning environment designed by the artist. Their behavior is shaped through contactless reward systems that emphasize striking, dodging, and positional awareness. Over time, the arms develop strategies that oscillate between aggression and hesitation, precision and chaos. What begins as simple programmed motion grows into a display of emergent play, as if the machines are improvising their own style of fencing.

The installation combines industrial hardware with contemporary AI research to create a hybrid spectacle. The IRB 120 and IRB 1200 robot arms, mounted on a linear axis, operate as both performers and instruments of experimentation. Their movements are generated through real-time decision making inside NVIDIA Isaac Lab and Isaac Sim, then translated into the physical world. The result is an environment where code and mechanics collide with humor, risk, and unpredictability.

At its core, En Garde examines how artificial intelligence and robotics can be reimagined as collaborators in performance. The work refuses to treat machines as purely functional, instead positioning them as players in a strange and ongoing duel. By exaggerating the line between training simulation and live spectacle, the piece invites audiences to see not only what robots can do, but also what they might invent when given space to play.