Bikelangelo Makes It Possible to Quickly Paint Large Graffiti Messages

Opinions about vandalism and property devaluation notwithstanding, there is little question that graffiti can be a valid form of art. The many, many millions of dollars that have been paid for Banksy works are proof enough of that. Some graffiti may just be gang tags quickly spray painted under an overpass, but other work can take talented artists several hours — even days — to complete. But what if that process could be automated? That’s the idea behind Bikelangelo: The Graffiti Maker Bike, and Sagarrabanana has a tutorial explaining how he built this rideable graffiti application system.

Bikelangelo is a trailer designed to be towed behind a standard bicycle. As the rider pedals along, the trailer automatically sprays paint (or dispenses water) from an array of nozzles to print a message or simple graphics on the ground. The message to be painted can be sent to Bikelangelo via Bluetooth. Those messages are intended to be simple text, but it is possible to produce graphics in the form of something akin to ASCII art. The length of those messages can vary, but the height has to remain constant. That height can only be seven “pixels” tall, which is really only enough for blocky alphanumeric characters. That works out to roughly two to three-foot tall messages.

The trailer was constructed mostly from PVC pipe, because it is cheap, readily-available, and easy to work with. Paint is stored in a large tank made from 160mm PCV pipe, which is pressurized with an air pump in order to spray the paint. The paint can be sprayed from one of seven nozzles, which have electric valves. Those valves are opened by an Arduino Uno via an eight-channel relay board. Messages are sent to the Arduino using an HC-05 Bluetooth module. A hall effect sensor is implemented to monitor the rotation of the trailer’s wheels in order to time the opening of the valves. While the spray-painted messages look pretty rudimentary, Bikelangelo is capable of quickly and easily applying them to roads and sidewalks.