Production Line

Part of the ongoing ECAL research project «A Third Hand – Creative Applications for Robotics»
40 students + 4 UR10 Robotic arms, 1 week, productive fun!
During this week, students had the opportunity to work hand-in-hand with robotic arms to produce experimental printing techniques.

You will discover and work with some of the possibilities of a robotic arm. You will learn how to make it move and you will see that it can perform many movements, with great precision. But without a hand and a tool at the end of the arm, the possibilities are quite limited. That's why we want you to work on a hand and tool and learn how to make the arm, hand and tool work together. As we know from our body, a hand can be used to hold a tool and apply motion to it through the arm. But the hand can also apply additional movements that the arm itself could not. Both of these principles could be considered this week, within the limits of feasibility of course. The goal of your system will be to create lines using surprising techniques and unexpected materials. These lines can be straight, curved, complex. They can be laid flat on a surface (2D), use a material adding volume to the surface (2.5D) or constitute a final result in volume (3D).

Having mastered their line creation, each group will be responsible for writing a letter over the course of the week. The beauty of the gesture is undeniably something that must be an integral part of your thinking. Indeed, the final result must function autonomously but its creation process by the robot will also be documented.