Hektor: the Graffiti Robot

Lopex writes "Gizmodo has a story about Hektor, a graffiti robot. Apparently it is for the extremely geeky (or perhaps extremely lazy) tagger. Hektor.ch has photos, information (pdf), and a movie (15 Mb) of it in action."

Comments

I saw this

[TheRealMindChild]

Many moons ago (at least a couple of years I think) on the discovery channel, or similar. But they were showing it off as an abstract artist. I think the idea behind that is any monkey can construct a robot to "trace" a digital image. It would just be an oversized printer.

Wow

[flewp]

Hektor really needs to learn some can control. Look at that drip!

He also lacks style, but at least it's not just giant bubble letters.

Re:Wow

[dAzED1]

I know you're just being silly, but it looked to me like the can was very controlled. There were fine details that lacked any drip. The drip that did exist looked pretty intentional.

Look over the pictures again. Any picture that shows drip will show plenty of areas with none. There are also other pictures with no drip at all.

Re:Wow

[NanoGator]

"Hektor really needs to learn some can control. Look at that drip!"

There are a lot of women out there who just don't understand how challenging that really is.

Re:Wow

[lhand]

How about RTFpdf? The drips were actually painted, they're not drips at all. Although they did get drips on some of their testing, the big "drips" in that image were purely intentional.

I want one.

OK, that's pretty damn cool...

[ackthpt]

Simple, elegant and with the right planning and execution some pretty decent murals could be done. I think there's a real market for it, even for commercial advertising. Give something like this more colors and even graphitti artists will begin to wonder why they put up with the freezing cold, cops, etc. when they could just hook up one of these and lurk in the shadows until it's done. No more lugging around twenty cans of spraypaint.

Re:OK, that's pretty damn cool...

[m3djack]

and even graphitti artists will begin to wonder why they put up with the freezing cold, cops, etc. when they could just hook up one of these and lurk in the shadows until it's done. No more lugging around twenty cans of spraypaint.

Right, now they just have to lug around twenty cans of spraypaint, one hundred feet of rope, a level, a ladder, something to attach the rope to the side of the building with, a laptop, data cable, and a robot.

Then, if the cops haven't come after someone complained of the racket of ladders hitting the sides of buildings and boltguns bolting the rope onto the side of a brick building, they may do all the lurking in the shadows they wish while the robot spends a half an hour drawing a landscape.

Re:OK, that's pretty damn cool...

[ackthpt]

Right, now they just have to lug around twenty cans of spraypaint, one hundred feet of rope, a level, a ladder, something to attach the rope to the side of the building with, a laptop, data cable, and a robot.

While you were typing this cynical view, I was considering what I'd have to do to pull off something. What modifications/enhancements I'd need to go 4 color, how to get away from paint cans. A bit of engineering and a decent exercise, but I think it could be done. Honestly, it's already been done, but not portably, afaik, for a small unit. I'm just curious how much propellant would be needed to spray like an airbrush. If CO2 could be used, how much would be needed, how to keep it from freezing up, etc.

More practical applications keep occuring to me as I think about it. Why not make these or lease them out to do painting in difficult or hazardous locations (i.e. underside of bridges.) Looking for a new way to make a living? Seems like opportunity for some bright minds to pool and do this commercially.

After the last time I put up with the aggrevation of using a Wagner Powerpainter to stain the side of a house, this seems like a dream come true. Just screw in a couple hooks and set something like this up to do most of the work.

Hooray

[stratjakt]

A variation of an XY plotter, hanging from cables, gravity pulls it in the Y direction.

A friend and I did something practically identical years ago for a tech shop project in high school, though we werent allowed to use spraypaint, so we had it draw on walls with magic markers, like a giant hanging etch-a-sketch. Worked pretty well, and really wasnt that complicated to build (QBasic "driver" software included)

couldn't resist...

[webtre]

I think this story is a dupe. Didn't they send two of these to Mars?

Re:time cop

[selfabuse]

er, demolition man, i mean.

Bleah..

[JayPee]

Whatever.. until he goes all-city, he gets no respect. I'd also like to see him hit freights. As soon as he got set up, ZOOOM. Away goes the train, with Hektor hanging on for dear life..

Just a matter of time...

[ArmenTanzarian]

before this starts popping up everywhere:

h3k70R iZ 7H3 L337357!!1

Art?

[s0l0m0n]

Where's the art? I'm sure that there are lots of people who would argue that graffiti is not art, but I feel that it's a valid form of subversive social commentary.

Most of the Graffiti kids I have known tag for a bunch of reasons..

Reasons like the art of it (I've seen some fantastic tags), but mostly the challenge of getting to a spot where you have time to throw a good tag. I mean, half of what people graffiti is their own name, or TAG, mostly on the biggest, most difficult thing to get to that they can find.

It's about the art, and about the challenge. Using a robot seems like mere automated vandalism.

Re:Art?

[shaka999]

"Using a robot seems like mere automated vandalism"

As opposed to good old fashioned manual vandalism? Yeah, there is a lot of art and challenge in putting up a gang name on every friggin corner.

Re:Art?

[Mateito]

> Where's the art?

In response to another followup - Art (like beauty) is in the eye of the beholder.

There are peeps who say that all graffiti is vandalism, and others that all graffiti is art.

Like any good fence sitter: I've seen some amazing renditions done with spray cans over "public" walls. These to me are art. Amazing use of colour, form. Many with a social message.

"Tagging", which if interpret it correctly, means basically signing your name on every exposed surface you can find, to me is vandalism. I've seen "taggers" scrawl stupid looking black squiggles that even a demented three year-old wouldn't bother producing scrawled on such creative places such as the sides of trains, bus-shelters and toilet doors.

My pet hate is when they paint right over the top of more elaborate and creative works. Its almost as if "I couldn't do something like that, so I'm going to fuck it up".

There is middle ground, but most graffiti I've seen falls into one of these two camps.

Re:Art?

[centralizati0n]

Who said they would be doing it to vandalize? I'm sure that some company would want these people to do something like the Che art, except in their company logo or something similar. Obviously, the driver system they are using (check out the fonts) is advanced enough that they can create almost anything in B&W that they want.

Re:Art?

[warpedrive]

Graffiti tagging is not art. It's someone who damages the works of engineers, city planners, other muralists and artists. In as far as I can see it's a far cry between making a building, a train, or a bus stop, and 'signing' your name on it.. Just because you don't put the effort in to do something really constructive, doesn't mean that writing your name on everything you see makes you creative.

It's somewhat equivalent to scrawling you name over top of a Renoir, and saying you've created a new work of art. It's obvious you haven't - you've simply defaced another's work.

Re:Art?

[Rude Turnip]

I've seen lots of graffiti...some of it looks really good, some of it is just there for vandalism purposes. The former I'd call art, regardless of the surface it's on.

But hey...art or not, IT'S NOT YOUR FSCKING WALL!!! Buy a goddamn canvas or get someone's permission before you paint their building. This is a simple case of "your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins."

Re:Art?

[HoldenCaulfield]

I haven't read their 37 page PDF about how the robot works, but I did watch the video. If your argument is that the art is in the challenge, then I think the challenge aspect here is huge. Having time to mount the two stepper motors, calibrate the cable lengths (though this may be automated - the can was pulled to either side at the beginning of the video, maybe letting the robot figure out the length of the cables?), and have enough time for the robot to do it's thing seems rather challenging to me.

Not to mention before hand they'd have to get the image into a format they can use (again, I didn't read if the creaters have a program that can take any vector based graphic or what). Add in that to get beyond black and white (not even grey tones as the robot doesn't feather the paint or anything), you'd have to overlay multiple layers of color, the challenge goes up, and if you had to create a separate image for each layer and figure out how they'd overlay/interact, then I'd say the challenges are quite significant indeed.

Granted, most of this art is going to be more like logos since you can't do shading to achieve the familiar bubble letters you see, but I'd say it's still art . . .

Re:Art?

[s0l0m0n]

So some one like Michelangelo who paints on a building with permission is an artist, but some one who paints on a building without is merely defacing a building?

That's an awfully black and white view of the world.

I suppose that all of those cave paintings were some punk kid throwing up gang signs for the bison gang.

You wanna roll with the bison, fool?

Re:Art?

[NixLuver]

Yeah it's a shame how black and white people tend to be. When someone lends something to me it's borrowing, but when I steal it, that makes it wrong.

Except for the fact that you completely miss the entire point; if you 'steal' my car, I no longer have any use of it; painting a pretty picture (I've seen everything from Marylin Monroe to "I Rok" tagged onto things) on the side of a train or a bus may annoy someone, but it doesn't keep the object form serving its purpose - i.e., the bus can still pick people up and deliver them to their stops, and people can still go into the county courthouse and pay their taxes.

The other thing that you've left out is that, in the case of a 'public' building or other property, the person doing the 'tagging' is at least nominally a part-owner in that public property; Again, perhaps annoying, but not completely irrelevant.

Re:Art?

[max2kone]

With graffiti writing you have to take 2 things into account:

1. What is the location of the writing? Is it an appropriate location (i.e. no personal property i.e. houses, small businesses; not on a cultural monument or other work of art; nature is another big no) Is the work appropriate for the location? (does it work off the environment around it to assimilate itself into the general experience of its location?)

2. What is the substance of the writing? Any 12 year old with a spraycan can write his name wierd, but it takes years of practice and dedication to achieve the skill level of some writers. Also, anyone can rip off someone else's style; is the work original?

If a piece of graffiti writing is appropriate for its environment and well excecuted, it can be a significant improvement over what previously occupied the space.

A good work of graffiti will be well excecuted and appropriate for its location.

Now we arrive at the question of legality. Much graffiti is done on or in abandoned buildings, alleyways, secluded rooftops, and on billboards. Many, if not most, of these spaces are essentially abandoned before graffiti writers come and mark their surfaces. In fact, graffiti is often done on top of other graffiti- there are legal walls with up to a 6 inch thick layer of paint on them.

Graffiti does not structurally harm buildings and can usually be painted over quickly and cheaply (glass etch tags are a very notable exception, it can cost thousands of dollars to replace a marred window pane and many writers decry the use of such wantonly destructive implements). It actually keeps plenty of kids out of gangs and drugs and provides an outlet for young peoples' creativity that isn't found elsewhere, and can be a very constructive and positive thing. On the other hand, graffiti can deface community murals and private homes (fortunately, this sort of writing is frowned upon).

Links:

www.greatbates.com
www.graffiti.org
www.dare.c h
www.12ozprophet.com
www.theartwheredreamscomet rue.com
www.graphotism.com
www.nicekidnice.com

Billboard Appliations?

[danaan]

This just makes me wonder why similar technology hasn't been used for the giant advertisements that cover the entire side of buildings. From what I've seen, these are all done by living human artists, who do a remarkable job in most cases. But it would seem very realistic, and I'd think cheaper to use some kind of robotic painter that could replicate art on anything. Have I just missed the news, or is it Clear Channel holding back the progress of technology?

This has been posted on /. before

[bat2k]

Here's the old post.

Just what every city needs

[Progman3K]

As if those no-talent taggers aren't enough, now we can look forward to them automating the process.

Proof-positive tagging isn't art.

*puts on flame retardant underpants*

Been there, done that.

[L. VeGas]

We already have robots that make bad art. They're called "network executives".

Name change request

[ByteSlicer]

I propose we rename it from Hector into Turk 182 2nd Edition...

Are they mad?!

[DarkHand]

A direct link to a 15MB .mov file on the front page of slashdot? Does someone REALLY not like the people who run that server or something?

This thing is really quite an engineering feat

[Anonymous Coward]

I saw this yesterday on Gizmodo, and was tremendously impressed with not only the quality of workmanship, but also the terrific software design - these guys created a custom program to take input from Adobe Illustrator, and create paths upon which Hektor can travel easily. See Scriptographer.com for the plugin. Really tremendous product, and the results are amazing (check out the portrait of Che Guevara in the PDF!)

Danger Will Robinson, Danger! Annoying Javascript

[SuperBanana]

photos

Yeah, a nice bit of javascript that opens over a half dozen windows in rapid-fire order, ordered a CD from Amazon using my account, sent a flaming email to GWB, redirected me to the goat-whatever guy, played the Dean Scream, and then crashed Mozilla. Well, ok, only the bit about opening up a bunch of photos.

[RANT]Folks- popup windoid things as part of your website are like talking appliances. Every so often, designers get it in their heads that it's a Hot Idea, and then everyone drags them out into the street and demonstrates how the current generation of designers got their new jobs. If I want to open something on your site in a new window, I'll goddamn hold down the modifier key and THEN click the link, thanks much.[/RANT]

Dang

[MattTC]

I was hoping for a robot that would enter data into my Palm Pilot for me.

Robot

[Rupert]

Definitions of robot vary, of course, but I feel that something that has to be attached by a human to the object on which it works does not meet mine.

A real graffiti robot would have suckers, or crampons, or a big extending ladder, not rely on someone else placing pulleys for it.

holy pop ups batman!

[circletimessquare]

if you click on the jpg link... consider yourself warned

It's all about Scalability!

[Flat Feet Pete]

OK, so one guy can paint a shed, but to paint the side of a tower block, you need scaffolds or a lift and time. Lots of money.

With this thing you just need a longer piece of rope and two mount points. Bigger building? longer rope. Switch the paint nozzle by radio. Even bigger building, just a longer rope.

Re:It's all about Scalability!

[MrAngryForNoReason]

Even bigger building, just a longer rope

This would work up to a point, but it wouldn't scale well for big structures. Rope stretches, even static ropes not designed for climbing still stretch a little. The longer the rope gets the heavier it is so the more it stretches. Unless you account for this when working out the position of the sprayer your pictures are going to be distorted.

You might be able to solve it using steel cables instead of rope which would stop the stretching problem but you might have trouble with their stiffness.

Mirror

[ripleymj]

Video available here

PDF available here

Re:Quick, take down the post!

[happyfrogcow]

"all your mars are belong to us" tagged across the red planet?

rule.

Re:WRONG!

[Geekwad]

Yeah, and to beat the wall-mounted zappers, they used robotic pods that popped out of the ground and spraypainted the whole wall in two seconds.

Think about the children!

[pavon]

What will our children do when these grafitti robots come and replace them? They will have nothing to do but wander the streets and vandalise things ... oh wait nevermind.

Re:Taggers SUCK

[Jugalator]

I know what I see at least, and I also agree it looks like shit. :-)