Robot Selfie - Kaleider collab
đŸ¤– research and developmentroboticssoftware developmentKaleider crowdsources hundreds of faces through a bespoke online platform, and then a robot paints them on a giant canvas in public space, creating a beautiful mural of strangers next to each other, in an act of togetherness.
Our involvement
We first got involved doing some troubleshooting during the R&D stage of the project, then we came on board fully to re-write the software and control mechanisms for the robot.
The robot is suspended in the air on two wires, which are connected to a pair of arduino controlled winches. The robot moves around the canvas by winding the wire in and out of the winches, so accurate motor movements and timings are crucial to be able to paint recognisable shapes!
Tech wise, this was a careful balance of electronic speed control (ESC), radio signalling, sensing and error correction.
During this process we identified a few areas in which the robot’s systems could be improved, so Kaleider constructed a 2nd generation robot which was faster, more accurate and less prone to hardware issues.