ARTificial 自律型絵画ロボット by Titus Ebbecke is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2020 A' Design Award 銅賞 in ロボティクス・オートマトン・オートメーションデザイン Competition Category.

銅ロボティクス· 2020

ARTificial 自律型絵画ロボット

by Titus Ebbecke

Client: University of Applied Sciences Wuerzburg-Schweinfurt

A' Design Award 銅賞 Winner in ロボティクス Category

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Colors

The Design

About ARTificial 自律型絵画ロボット

ARTificialは、人間の作為をほとんど介さずにアートを生み出す自律型絵画ロボットである。敵対的生成ネットワーク（GAN）が新たな肖像画を生成し、独自のアルゴリズムがそのデジタル画像を座標データへ変換する。続いて産業用ロボットが、アクリル絵具でキャンバスに肖像画を描き出す。二つのボタンを押すと、機械はランダムにモチーフを選び、絵具を取り、筆を洗い、作品が完成するまで作業を続ける。木材、コンクリート、鋼材による基礎構造が安全な稼働を支えている。このインスタレーションは、芸術の創造が知性ある存在だけのものなのかという問いを投げかける。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 銅賞

ARTificial 自律型絵画ロボットは、創造性、独創性、鋭い洞察力で際立つ傑出したデザインに授与される、高い権威をもつ評価である A' Design Award 銅賞の受賞作品です。銅賞の受賞作品は、十分に巧みで印象的なほど創造的な工芸品であり、デザイナーの豊富な経験、想像力、機知を裏づけています。ARTificial 自律型絵画ロボットは、高く評価され、称賛され、愛される品であり、顕著にプロフェッショナルで革新的であることが期待されます。この A' Design Award 銅賞を受賞したデザインは、芸術・科学・デザイン・技術のベストプラクティスを取り入れており、細部への配慮に優れています。ARTificial 自律型絵画ロボットは、ニーズを見事に満たし、欲求に触れ、感情を魅了し、好奇心を引きつけます。

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.