PAUL, THE DRAWING ROBOT
Patrick Tresset, UK
Case Study - Robotis DYNAMIXEL
A London based artist, Patrick Tresset breaks the boundary between art and technology through his portrait drawing robot, Paul.
Tresset develops robots and autonomous computational systems to produce series of drawings, paintings and animations.
The Story of Paul The Robot !
Patrick Tresset with Paul the Robot
Patrick studied computing in Brussels and later realised that he did not have the passion to work in the computing field and was not interested; so moved to London and became a painter.
Thirteen years passed, as a professional painter. He was then diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and later lost his interest for painting. He realised that he no longer had the creative ability and lost his passion for painting.
At this point, he remembered that he studied computing and decided to work with systems. What he could not do by hand anymore, he started using the systems and decided to develop prosthetics (artificial body parts) for the loss of his creative ability.
Behind Paul the Robot
ROBOTIS Dynamixel
AX-12W
All Robots should have Artistic Skills.
Paul is a robot that is dedicated and specialises in drawing people. The robot uses a style similar to how Patrick would draw by hand.
- Paul has a camera and looks at the person with his eyes
- Detects and scan the face
- Takes a picture, limits it to a region of interest
- Converts to a grey-level image and applies contrast curve
- He also uses visual feedback
- Draws salient lines
- Performs the shading behavior and image is drawn
Uses Robotis Dynamixel AX-12 for servo status & feedback
Software Architecture
Patrick explains that we are far from artificial consciousness so robots are bound to have problems of communication and problems with social interaction.
One way robots can be better integrated in the society is if they have artistic skills.
Credits:
Robotis Showcase / Case Study