ARTificial Wobo Penti Otonòm by Titus Ebbecke

ARTificial Wobo Penti Otonòm by Titus Ebbecke is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2020 A' Design Award Bwonz in Wobotik Competition Category.

BwonzWobotik· 2020

ARTificial Wobo Penti Otonòm

by Titus Ebbecke

Client: University of Applied Sciences Wuerzburg-Schweinfurt

A' Design Award Bwonz Winner in Wobotik Category

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Colors

The Design

About ARTificial Wobo Penti Otonòm

ARTificial se yon wobo penti otonòm ki kreye atizay san prèske okenn patisipasyon imen. Yon rezo advèsè jeneratif (generative adversarial network) pwodui yon nouvo pòtre, epi yon algoritm inovatè konvèti imaj dijital la an kowòdone. Answit, yon wobo endistriyèl penti pòtre a sou twal ak penti akrilik. Apre yo peze de bouton, machin nan chwazi yon motif o aza, li pran penti, li netwaye bwòs la epi li travay jiskaske travay atizay la fini. Yon fondasyon fèt an bwa, beton ak asye asire yon operasyon ki san danje. Enstalasyon sa a poze kesyon si kreyasyon atizay se sèlman pou èt entelijan yo.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award Bwonz

ARTificial Wobo Penti Otonòm se yon ganyan A' Design Award Bwonz, yon rekonesans ki gen anpil prestij yo bay design ekselan ki make pa kreyativite, enjenyozite ak finès. Ganyan Bwonz yo se objè ki abil anpil e ki kreyatif nan fason ki frape, ki otantifye gwo eksperyans, imajinasyon ak debouyaj designer yo. Yo atann ARTificial Wobo Penti Otonòm pou se yon objè anpil moun estime, admire e renmen, ki pwofesyonèl e inovatè nan fason remakab. Design sa a ki ganyen A' Design Award Bwonz enkòpore pi bon pratik nan atizay, syans, design ak teknoloji, e li ekselan pou atansyon li bay detay. ARTificial Wobo Penti Otonòm satisfè bezwen yon fason espledid, li touche dezi, li chame santiman e li atire kiryozite.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: This robot is among the first fully autonomous machines which create art with barely any human authorship. Upon starting the system, the installation generates a completely new portrait with artificial intelligence. A novel algorithm converts the digital AI art into coordinates and the robot then paints it on canvas with acrylic. The sculpture works without human supervision and challenges the belief of art creation as a property of human or artificial intelligence.
Dimensions & Packaging: Dimensions: 3000 X 2000 X 1500mm
Weight: 450kg
Tags: artificial intelligence, ai, generative art, robot, industrial robot, algorithmic, software engineering, installation, robot, gan, generative adversarial network
Production Technology: The images are created with a generative adversarial network. The algorithm is written in Python with OpenCV and NumPy. The KUKA robot and the computer are connected with an Ethernet connection. The custom made foundation has been created out of wood, concrete, and steel. A novel algorithm has been developed for this project. The robot is capable of painting unlimited images without human supervision.
Design Challenge: This project required contacting a robot manufacturer, getting funds, transporting the robot and installing its numerous control interfaces. A foundation needed to be designed and constructed, to ensure the safe operation of this dangerous piece of industrial equipment. Finally, the author had to learn how to program a robot, as well as training the artificial Intelligence for multiple days on the most powerful GPU in existence and developing a completely novel algorithm for converting an AI image into coordinates in a safe manner.
Research: This project is based on image synthesis with artificial intelligence and the combination of machine learning with robotics. A novel algorithm and method have been developed, to research whether art-creation can be linked to intelligence and if this sculpture qualifies as an authentic artist. This research has been conducted in cooperation with KUKA and was supervised under the head of corporate research. The algorithmic basis of this image-to-coordinate-translation will be published in 2020.
Inspiration: Intelligence and consciousness seem to be almost exclusive to the human species. Similarly, the creation of art appears to be strongly bound to the intelligence of its author. This exclusivity between art creation and intelligence is so strong, that proving whether machines can be artists, is an essential step towards true artificial intelligence. As Art and intelligence still lack definitions, this project provokes discussions on whether this machine has these attributes.
Project Duration: This bachelor thesis has been created from February 2019 to July 2019. It demonstrated its ability during a two-day exhibition in August 2019, where it painted over 10 hours in front of a hundred visitors.
Operation Flow: The key element of this project is its autonomy. The robot decides what to generate on a random basis and paints as it wishes. This is an attempt to emulate human artists and their creative freedom as much as possible. Two buttons need to be pressed and the robot will start to generate a random image, take paint, clean its brush and will continue to paint until the artwork is finished.