Polar Printing Press

2015

Python

Arduino

Electrical Sensing and Controls

School project

For our Principles of Engineering course, my team built a machine that would take images and draw them on a sheet of paper with a Sharpie. Our machine won an Honorable Mention in the 2016 Robot Art competition.

The machine consisted of a platter spun at a constant speed, a gantry over the platter which contained the marker assembly, and the electronics to control the whole system. The computer would take an input image, binarize it, and convert it to a list of commands for the Arduino. The Arduino measures the location of the platter, and controls the radial distance of the marker, and it's up/down state.

The image processing is written in Python, while the device actuation controls are written in Arduino.

The project is documented on our website. You can see images that it's drawn and a video of it drawing in 'Gallery'.