British artist, Patrick Tresset, has spent the last ten years of his life teaching robots how to draw like a professional artist. Using advanced robotic techniques, Tresset has created a machine that is capable of producing quality artistic prints, some of which have been displayed in major art museums, galleries and art fairs.
The way in which the robots have been designed is by using autonomous artistic creativity. Working as a both a roboticist and artist at the University of London, Tresset has developed his skills to create two different robots. During the project, Tresset worked with closely with Oliver Deussen of the University of Konstanz in Germany and Frederic Fol Leymarie, an expert in robotic-based visualization. Together they were able to devise Paul and e-David, both autonomous artists, but working slightly different to one another.
Paul is classed as a sketching robot, and the way in which it works is by first scanning the room for a human face. Once that has been established it sets to work, and sketching out the person’s portrait onto its canvas, complete with shading as well. Paul also has the ability to post the portrait onto Facebook or Twitter if hooked up to the internet. This robot is consists of a three jointed planar arm connected to a fourth that allows movement of the pen.
Tresset’s second robot, e-David, is very similar to Paul in that it too can produce quality portraits. However, e-David is slightly more advanced in that it is capable of grasping five different brushes and can even dip the brush into water meaning that up to 24 separate colors could be used for any painting. This is largely due to the fact it has been built using an arm from an industrial robot so has more functionality and flexibility.
Both of these robots created by Tresset are amazing examples of what can be done with technology if we put a lot of hard work and dedication into it. However, it may start to worry artists a little if robots can start to produce even more creative pieces as they may soon find themselves out of a job!
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