[Ben Grosser] built an interactive painting robot that’s pretty far removed from the LED and Arduino builds we usually see. The robot is adapted from one of the many CNC routers we’ve featured over the years. The control system is written in Python and uses genetic algorithms and a microphone to decide what to paint next.
Robot artists have been around for decades now. When [Harold Cohen] exhibited his robotic artist AARON, gallery patrons lined up to watch a robot paint. The paintings were originally just a monochrome line drawing that was later colored in by [Cohen]. [Ben] made his robot paint directly onto canvas with oil paints, so there’s no question of what the computer intends the final product to be.
[Ben] came up with a really neat build, but we’re wondering about having this robot artist on display inside a cavernous exhibition hall. Surely the echos from the servos and stepper motors would be picked up by the mic and interpreted by the painting algorithm. Barring some control systems, it would probably be the robot’s commentary on its own decent into madness.
Check out a video of the robot in action after the break, followed by a violin/robot duet the shows how the audio is interpreted.
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/23998286]
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/27759330]
It’s unfortunate when decent people (or robots) become mad.
Wow, I can’t believe these have been around for decades and I’m just finding out about them. Information overload! The videos of the robots painting are splendid!
Owner, Touch Tonic
I’m curious, does copyright cover translating a song into a painting in a manner that can’t be reversed?
Only in the sense that the drawing is automatically protected from others by the copyright act :)
I wonder what those piezos attached to the motors are there for? Filtering out motor sounds from mic input perhaps? Anyone got an idea?
I would guess that they’re the main audio sensors for the motors, and that the standing mic is either a prop or just for user input.
Daisy, daaaaiiissssyyyyyyyy
Give me your an-swer do