Could not be happier with the 7Bot that we are integrating into cloudpainter.
The start-up robotic arm manufacturers that make 7Bot sent us one for evaluation and we have been messing around with it for the past week. The robot turned out to be perfect for our application, and also it was just plain fun. We have experimented with multiple different configurations inside of cloudpainter and think the final one will look something like the photoshop mockup above.
At this point here is how Hunter and I are thinking it will create paintings.
Our Neural Jet will be on an XY Table and airbrush a quick background. The 7Bots, each equipped with a camera and an artist's brush will then take care of painting in details. The 7Bots will use AI, Feedback Loops, and Machine Learning to execute and evaluate each and every brush stroke. They will also be able to look out into the world and paint things it finds interesting, particularly portraits.
The most amazing thing about all this is that until recently, doing all of this would have been prohibitively expensive. Something similar to this set up when I started 10 years ago would have been $40,000-50,000, maybe even more. Now you can buy and construct just about all the components that cloudpainter would need for under $5,000. If you wanted to go with a scaled down version, you could probably build most of its functionality for under $1,000. The most expensive tool required is actually the 3D printer that we bought to print the components for the Neural Jet seen in bottom left hand corner of picture. Even the 7Bots cost less than the printer.
Will leave you with this video of us messing around with the 7Bot. Its a super fun machine.
Also if you are wondering just what this robot is capable of, check out their video. We are really excited to be integrating this into cloudpainter.
Its an amazing machine.