Robotic Arms, and The Beginning of cloudpainter

So we have long realized this, but now we finally have a plan.  For this painting robot to truly be able to express itself, it needs arms.  So we are planning on adding a pair, if not four.  A conceptual 3D model showing where we would put the first two can be seen below.

So the way we are thinking about this whole robot coming together is to add a pair of robotic arms above the painting area.  They would hold brushes, or maybe a brush and a camera.  Still deciding on this.  But as currently envisioned, the XY table will control the airbrushes, and the arms will control the traditional artist brushes.  Lots of reasons for this, least of which we think it will look cool for them to dance around each other.

We expect to have one of the robot arms, a 7bot, here in a couple of days.  Can't wait to see what we can do with it. 

Another thing we are realizing is that this is beyond the scope of the Neural Jet.  This new robot, a machine with a modular paint head on an xy-table and two robotic arms, is sort of a new project.  So from here on out while the Neural Jet will refer to the modular paint head, the project in its entirety will be referred to as cloudpainter, and will encompass all the tech and algorithms from all of my previous robots.

Talked Portraiture With Chuck Close at the White House

As you know, I was invited to White House for SXSL.  I have many good pictures of what was a real fun day. But I wanted to share this one in particular 'cause I am still processing how awesome meeting Chuck Close was.

So when I saw Chuck Close on the South Lawn, I realized that I had to introduce myself. As an artist he has always been a favorite, if not the favorite, though its sort of impossible to rank something like that.  I have long imitated many of his concepts in my own art.  I even designed my fourth robot to fit large canvases so it could paint portraits on the scale of his work.

While I wasn't expecting to be starstruck when I went up to introduce myself, I was. I didn't know what to say so I just told him I was a portrait artist to which he replied that he was sorry to hear that as it was a horrible line of work to be in. Then we chatted about portraiture briefly where he made a couple of other jokes before asking to see some of my work.  I wasn't expecting that, either his interest in my work, or his compassionate humor.  I showed him some portraits of my family on my phone, said my thanks for taking the time to talk with me, then went on my way.

I wanted to talk to him longer but at same time didn't want to be a harasser.

Awesome Video Shoot With Thrillist Crew

Had such a cool day.  A film crew from Thrillist showed up to interview me about my painting robots. Thanks to Vin, Josh, Mary, Peter, Paul, and Matt.  Was so fun.  Lots of good footage including this shot that makes me look real important.

Ten Years of Progress on Painting Robots

These pics both show my very first painting robot head and the most recent one.  The first, which could hold only one brush, was made from parts found lying around my house including old pieces of wood, a handmade electromagnet, tape, and deck parts.  The most recent can hold and operate nine different kinds of brushes and is almost completely 3D printed.  Some of the plastic even glows in the dark.

Airbrush Actuator Complete

It is amazing how much an invitation from the White House can speed up development.  Long hours this weekend went into getting a working airbrush prototype.  While paint brushes will remain the primary mark making device in the Neural Jet, it will be cool to have them backed up by five airbrushes with the ability to quickly paint backgrounds.  

Also cool that we went with the servos instead of something like a solenoid to control air flow.  With our servos we can actuate the air coming out to 16 different pressures.  So mixing becomes possible, and since we have 5 airbrushes on the paint head, the Neural Jet will be able to paint over 1,000,000 colors (16^5).  Yeah this part of the project really is just re-inventing a printer, but coupled with the other mark making tools that are coming, it will be on the next level.  You can see the prototype in action below.

We Just got invited to the... um... White House

We just got an invitation to the, um... White House.

So, WOW! We just received the following invitation...

Looks like we are going to have to step up the schedule to have our Neural Jet prototype working in the next couple of weeks.  It is a little ambitious, but we just had a design meeting and worked out a plan that would have a good portion of the functionality ready for an interactive exhibit.  

Wish us luck as we had no choice but to accept the invitation. Now we are aiming to amaze and impress at the inaugural SXSL Festival of Ideas, Art, and Action.

Neural Jet Modular Paint Head Complete

We have finished printing what we think will be the final paint tray. In the image above you can see how it will be oriented to the canvas when it is being used to paint. Coincidentally enough, we arrived at the final design on the Model T - Like Henry Ford's car.

(Model T) can hold multiple paint brushes and up to five airbrushes, with modules that fit three different types of airbrushes.  People sometimes have a hard time imagining what we are showing in the photos, so I have included the following schematic that shows how the 5 airbrushes fit together.

The empty slots in the graphic above can be fitted with just about any mark making device, though I am partial to paint brushes.  The reason we want to use paint brushes is that we have yet to find anything that can make marks similar to those in the image below.  And thats what we are ultimately after.

Refined Paint Head (Model R)

Based on the initial prototype, which we were actually very pleased with, we went back to the white board and tackled some of its shortcomings.  The primary issue we had to address was how was a robot arm or xy-table going to hold on to this thing.

That was when Hunter came up with the idea of supporting the entire paint head from the center with 2" bolts.  So we redesigned the tray to hold 9 2" 6-32 bolts.  Above these bolts an aluminum disk would serve as the mounting surface.  With this configuration any module that consisted of a 40 degree arc with a 3.5" radius, could just snap into place.

As always, here is the final Google Sketch file so anyone that wants to can design this along with us.

Paint Head Prototype Constructed

Hunter and I constructed the first prototype.  It consisted of ten physical parts. The tray and nine plug-in modules.  If you want to experiment along with us and this prototype, you can download the 3D plans from our downloads page.

Once 3D printing was complete, some parts of the tray were glued together with super glue. The modules could then snap into place and be removed as needed.  While we hope the final paint head does not need any glue, we were experimenting with how things fit together and super glue offered us the most flexibility at this stage of construction.

Based on a several lessons learned with the Q prototype, we set out on a number of improvements for the next iteration.  The main problem we are now trying to solve is how to suspend The Neural Jet from either an xy-table or a robotic arm.  

Using 3D Printer to Manufacture Parts

Nothing makes me realize that The Future Is Now more than our new 3D Printer. We are manufacturing the parts we need for the Neural Jet. And the creative process has taken on an iterative nature.  The plan is to have a modular paint head and our design has taken us through seven iterations so far. You can see several of the early wedges that will fit together on our modular head in the pic below.

Some of the attempts went poorly, as can be seen by the tangled mess of plastic on the left. But the design got better as did our proficiency with the 3D printer.  Ultimately we ended up with the following version, called Tray G.

As can be seen in the following picture, this tray holds a standard sized airbrush and resevoir almost perfectly.  When arrayed in a circle, all the airbrushes should be pointing to a central point, and hopefully be able to paint in unison with one another.

3D PRINTER ARRIVES - OPENING, UNPACKING, AND ASSEMBLING

Our 3D Printer, a Wanhao Duplicator I3 Plus, finally arrived from China. Took about 2 weeks to get here. I wanted to open it as soon as we got it, but instead we decided to make an unboxing video. The results were kinda ridiculous. Typical unboxing videos are done by experts, but we quickly realized we didn't know what we were doing and stumbled through ours. But it was a fun way to learn about assembling and putting together a 3D Printer, so we hope you enjoy it.

Modular Approach?

So the idea of going modular came up, and it just makes sense.

At the design meeting we decided to make a paint head that was versatile enough to be mounted on either a 3D arm or an XY Table. Why stop with the customization there? The new concept is to give the paint head a configurable set of mark making tools from which it can operate.  We are having another design meeting this weekend to go into the particulars.  This picture though shows a rough first conceptualization of a nine module system.

Oh... also in keeping with the open source nature of this project, here are the google sketch-up documents to go along with this mock-up.  We plan on sharing everything so anyone can follow along and contribute.

Design Meeting

Dante, Hunter, Corinne, and I sat down to design our new painting robot and define its technical requirements.

The biggest decision made, among many important ones, was to design the new robotic paint head to work on both an XY-Table and and Robotic Arm. We did a comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of the two and they were pretty even.  Thats when Hunter asked if the head would work on either and we realized that we did not have to choose between the two.  There was probably a way to design it to work on either. As a result of the meeting, our focus has shifted from make a Painting Robot, to concentrating on making a Painting Robot Head (or Tool) that can be used by any robot whether it be an XY Table, Robot Arm, or even something anthropomorphic like an Asimo.  We will design a robot around this Paint Head, but its cool to think about how to design the paint head so that any robot can use it.

You can see the details we arrived at on the white board but to summarize main features:

1: will have 6 airbrushes, a paintbrush, and camera.
2: will require 6 valves and a servo for the brush.
3: will need air supply, power, and comm line.

We have not yet determined whether or not controller will be part of robot paint head, or stored in separate module along with air compressor.

Some concerns we have are: 

1: Will there be enough paint in Airbrush reservoirs?
2: Where are we going to put camera?
3: How will we raise and lower traditional brush?  

But most importantly, we are trying to figure out what Corinne meant by her contribution to the meeting in the photo below. We sense that its something big, but what could it mean?

Initial 3D Sketches of Paint Head Complete

Though its probably obvious, the name of this new robot is a blend of Neural Nets and InkJets.  The main idea being that it will use artificial intelligence to spray paint onto a canvas with jets of air. This initial sketch shows how this will be accomplished with an array of six airbrushes. Final design  will include traditional brushes as well, but we will build that around this airbrush array as our experience is that paint delivery is the most difficult part of any painting robot.  That is our primary goal, the delivery of paint to the brush and canvas.

Six airbrushes are being used so that a full color gamut can be achieve. The pigments in five of the air brushes will be cyan, magenta, yellow, black, and white. The final airbrush will either have a "guest" pigment, or a paint thinner, perhaps water?  Not sure yet.  

The two most interesting aspect of this are why white and a thinning agent are being included.

The reason for the white is that the Neural Jet will be using creative feedback loops (see my TEDx Talk for details). This robot will need the ability to both add and subtract saturation.  Unlike an inkjet printer that knows exactly what it will be printing and uses the white of the page, this robot will be re-evaluating each brush stroke and mark continuously, and repainting areas constantly.  As such it will need the ability to lighten areas, and even erase by white washing.  

The reason for the thinning agent is many fold, most importantly for brush washing and texture.  We are still working out the final details, but this robot will have a brush and brushes need cleaning, so it would be nice to be able to apply pigments and clean them from the brush with this paint head.  Another reason for a sixth airbrush is that it might be interesting to have a mystery fluid that simply gets mixed in once in a while to add texture.  I am not sure what exactly will be needed, but I just feel like later in the process I will be wishing I had an extra airbrush, so I am including it in the initial design.  Hope I don't end up needing two extra airbrush heads.

Neural Jet Project Kickoff Meeting

It’s the end of July and we had our first meeting to decide that we would kick off the Neural Net Project on August 1, 2016.  

Our teams goal is to create a painting robot that uses a variety of mark making devices to create art on a canvas. We want to finish this new robot within a year. This will be our family's sixth painting robot, and easily our most ambitious. It will use many of the algorithms that we have experimented with over the years, including some new ones, in an attempt to have the robot make all of the aesthetic decisions for each piece of art it creates. Our goal is for this robot to create art in as human a manner as possible.

In our kickoff photo, Dante can be seen holding one of the first robotic heads (left) while Hunter is holding a half-constructed prototype of our newest one (right).  Pindar is in the middle holding Corinne. While we have not yet decided upon many of the details behind this new robot, you can see a lot of our prototyping equipment in the background including a custom built xy plotter, couple of Arduinos, and a Lego Mindstorms set.

We will be updating this blog regularly with our progress as well as sharing all our code and design as the robot progresses.  We encourage anyone interested to join in on this experiment.

Neural Jet Project Kickoff

With only a couple of days left in July, Hunter, Dante, and I are kicking off the Neural Jet Project.  The goal is pretty simple.  Make a really cool autonomous robot that paints using true creativity.

We are not sure how we are going to make it but the basic stuff we have started off with include a couple of Arduino's, a 3D Printer, Paintbrushes, some Air Brush Equipment, and 10 years of experience building painting robots.

We will post some more pics by the end of the day.

Pindar

First Robotic Head Mock-Up and Updates

As I paint 3 paintings for the backers eacha week, I am also making mock-ups of the new robotic head that I will be adding to the robot. Above is the first mock-up.  I put it together only to realize that there were lots of problems with the design. But thats cool 'cause I have a whole load of friends looking at this and helping iron things out - and that part is turning out to be more fun than expected.  

The main problem with this design that I didn't see until I built the mock-up is that half of the airbrushes would be upside down when mounted on my robot at a 45 degreen angle. So only 3 of the airbrushed would really work correctly.  I need 5 at a minimum.

Also I showed the design to my friend and colleague Mark, the same one who I mentioned in previous post that printed his own 3D printer.  He suggested I make each airbrush holder modular - and have them snap together when ready to paint. Have I mentioned he also has done work at NASA - so I take his advice really seriously and really like the concept of a modular robotic head that snaps together.  It would make swapping colors really fast and easy, maybe color changes can even be done robotically if we design it right.

Another cool thing about Mark is that he is into sharing all of this. So we spoke briefly and decided that when we came up with a design and plans, we would post it on our site so anyone could build their own version of whatever we come up with. 

Will try and get another mock-up done this week and post it along with the next set of paintings in schedule next week.

New Robot Design Finalized - Will be ready in 3-6 months...

Getting through your paintings at about 3 a week,  Will post schedule of next 6 portraits some time around Sunday. If you need yours sooner than later, let me know.

CMYKW NeuralJet Printer

So I am zeroing in on the final design of bitPaintr. Above is a quick sketch of the concept that I am leaning towards. In addition to an artist's brush, I am adding between 3 and 6 airbrushes that will operate very similar to an inkjet printer by mixing Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, and Black ink to try and replicate as many colors in the spectrum as possible. Better than an inkjet, it will also include White and possibly some other mystery ink or finish. The airbrushes will not replace the brush, but be used for quickly filling in backgrounds.  Another concept that I am considering is to let humans paint with the artist brush while allowing the robot's AI to paint with the airbrushes.  Thinking of calling it a NeuralJet Printer.

But don't worry, this will not be a printer in the traditional sense. I promise that it will be just as messy and ridiculous as all my previous robots.  I have never even used an airbrush before, so I have no idea how I am going to program my robot to use one. Another way I am leaving my comfort zone is following the advice of my friend Mark to switch to pneumatics. Mark has also been telling me to use airbrushes for years now. I am finally listening to all his advice. Before last week, I didn't even know how to spell pneumatics and I had never used an airbrush. Despite this I fully intend to convert my robot into an air powered system in the next 3-6 months.