Dreaming with dandelion

Abstract

In this robotic art project, we developing a series of autonomous behavior as fictional design to mimic that robot has its own conscious. We make robot holding a pencil for drawing line-based illustration, metaphor robot is dreaming, according to in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", whether you can dream is used as a romantic question to test between life and artificial life. In the system, the industrial robot independently explores the Environmental Information through the depth sensor and AI system in exhibition space. And then the detected data will used to input into Dandelion-like Generative System(DGS), which made by algorithmic data structures from fractal tree and L-system for mimic nature phototropism mechanism and growing processes. Finally, we used grasshopper develop a mechanism to convert the linebase dandelion diagram into robotic painting by manipulation paths and gripper's act, to make robot physically holding the pencil to draw it out on a paper. This installation will painting an unique dandelion illustration per day, it can also see as specific data visualization by its dynamical physical environment. This stroking processes and its painted outcome can see as a hybrid creation combining computational aesthetics and Robotic Stroking.