LEGO Art in STEAM Robots

For my summer internship with the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) I was assigned the task of creating robots that bridged the gap between art and Engineering. I was working on a LEGO education grant. My primary focus of the summer was using LEGO SPIKE Prime robotics kits to make drawing machines. I wanted to create unique designs that made interesting art. I also started to experiment with conductive knitting towards the end of my internship.

SPIKE Prime Printer

SPIKE Prime Hand

Rorschach Test Generator

Conductive Knitwear

SPIKE Prime Printer

This was the first in my series of drawing robots for the LEGO A in STEAM project. I wanted to start with a simple design that would reliably make pen marks on paper. This robot has three dimensions of movement (forward and backward, right to left, up and down).

The printer has 3 motors:

Moves the paper forward and backward.
Moves the pen right and left.
Operates a cam gear that lifts the pen up and down.

This allows it to have the 3 axes of movement required for printing. The pen holder utilizes adjustable rubber grips to accommodate many different pen sizes.

The printer reads binary images 20 pixels wide. Where there is a 1, it puts a dot, and where there is a 0, it keeps the pen up.

Where do I want to go with the printer?

I’m really interested in layering colors on top of each other to make designs. I have experimented a little but want to investigate more especially with the RoseArt markers. The process could be similar to screen printing clothing.

Things to be aware of when operating

Make sure the rubber grippers have the pen secure before starting the run.
Start with the pen down (you can manually lower the cam gear that controls the height).
Make sure the gear that moves the paper is making contact with the black rack and pinion gear.
I’ve been using this website to convert black and white images to binary images and then running them through this process to make them readable for the printer:

SPIKE Prime Hand

The fingers are controlled by SPIKE Prime motors. The fingers are tensioned by rubber bands on the back and pulled forward with pulleys.

The thumb has two degrees of freedom controlled by pneumatic pumps, one to rotate the thumb and one to open and close the last joint of the thumb.

Rubber bands on the back of the fingers.

The hand works by having rubber bands on the back of the fingers that pull the fingers into an upright position. This is opposed by strings on the front of the fingers that spool in and pull the fingers forward.

I would also love to make a program that can take camera data of a person's hand and have my hand match their code. This would allow people to have more control over what they are creating. Currently, along with the help of one of my coworkers, I have been able to get a program running that takes an image of your hand and generates a list of 0s and 1s that indicate which fingers are up using openCV.

Converting the hand to a finger painting machine

This finger-painting machine functions by having a cup of paint drop onto the hand.

The hand begins to move and the canvas rotates a random number of degrees.

Examples of the art:

Rorschach Test Generator

This machine is designed to generate robot-generated Rorschach tests. A Rorschach test is a symmetrical ink blot image used in psychoanalysis. Patients are asked to describe what they see in the image.

Pencil lifting mechanism

I created the design for the paint dripper based on a tool I use to draw with wax called a batik pen.

My design consists of a tube with a pencil and paint in it. When the pencil is raised out of the tube, paint flows, and when the pencil is lowered, it stops the flow of paint.

After all of the paint is dropped onto the page, the robot sandwiches the paper together, creating the Rorschach test.

Wax batik pen

Sandwiching mechanism

When I asked my coworkers what they saw in this Rorschach test, I got answers varying from "angel wings" to "kidneys"!

Conductive Knitwear

I wanted to experiment with the idea of knitting with conductive thread to make resistors in circuits that change the voltage in the circuit based on touch. I started with smaller samples using both 2-ply and 3-ply stainless steel conductive thread. I then made a stuffed animal with incorporated conductive material and LEDs.

Electrical resistance decreasing when the fabric is stretched

Dog I knit and crocheted with conductive thread

Knitting with conductive thread is good because it makes the conductive thread much more stable. Typically, when sewing with conductive thread it is very tricky because the thread is slippery and hard to secure. When the stainless steel thread is knit with another yarn it becomes much more stable and reliable.

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