Hey, I have a class where the final project is to design an “art robot” that has to cost under $120 dollars. Since I am an EE, with pretty much no creativity, wanted to see if any of you FIRSTers had any cool ideas for what kind of art to make. I have a month to finish this, with one partner, so can’t be anything too crazy. Let me know what you all think!
Just a little clarification.
Does it need to move, or is it just a robot looking thing made from say different medias?
I have seen some cool looking dog and cat sculptures made from things like chains, sprokets, and springs. All welded together, and very industrial design looking.
That is a very good question…cause I was wondering the same thing. I have also seen many pieces of art as Elgin described, made out of nuts and bolts and all sorts of stuff, made to look like other things.
If it needs to move and such, then you could make a picture that moves. For example, make the first icon in 3 parts and have them all move independently. Use a motion detector or other type of sensor to trigger the action.
I guess I probably should have clarified, the art robot has to accept a sheet of paper and then draw something on it within 60 seconds. The entire machine has to go within a 2x2x2 footprint, and the machine does not need to move.
So you’re building a plotter?
Not necessarily a plotter, it can be pretty much anything that will create art on a sheet of paper. I was thinking something along the lines of taking a camera chip or heat sensor and using that to create an outline of the person standing in front of it.
How about a Lego Mindstorms robot with a Magic Marker duct-taped to it, that drives around in random patterns on top of the piece of paper? Sounds like art to me! 
-dave
A couple of my co-workers used to be involved in “The Table”, a robotic Art exhibit that has it’s own room in a Toronto modern art museum:
http://www.mae.cornell.edu/Raff/MOVIES/Table.wmv
Maybe if you put ink all over the table’s wheels it will make the type of art you are looking for :ahh:
Patrick
How about a robotic spirograph…samples here or here
You could have controls on top to set the parameters. This could be mobile or not based on design.
You could make it really cool by having it randomly dance while it draws (you would need to cancel the movement with your pen) :yikes:
Here’s some inspiration.
-Joel
www.artbots.org You best chance would to build a symet robot and attach a marker to the motor. Unfortunately, they require sunlight to operate and usually move about twice every second.
There are lots of robots out there that draw. But you could be cool and make it fold the paper http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~robotics/origami.html
( I remeber there being a small thread about this robot somewhere)
It would be cool because i am sure there will be lots of drawing robots there.