Pankraz Piktograph Robot Can Sketch Portraits Using Different Styles
Felix Fisgus and Joris Wegner's self-contained portrait-drawing robot is powered by a Raspberry Pi.
Head to any fair, carnival or fest and chances are there’s an artist creating character portraits of attendees with great artistic flair. Robotic artists could soon join in the festivities as Felix Fisgus and Joris Wegner recently unveiled the Pankraz Piktograph portrait-drawing robot as their Master’s thesis.
The Pankraz Piktograph takes photos of the subject with a button press, which can then be styled with the user’s preference. After the style is chosen, the image is translated into a vector representation and drawn using pen and paper. Every drawing is different and can be produced in a minimalist line style, as a highly-detailed portrait, and more.
The robot is powered by a Raspberry Pi 3, which controls a Pi Camera and 3.5" display for app navigation and inputs. A wired remote control is used to snap the image, which the Pi uses to generate a vector template the robot uses to generate an image with a specific style the user chooses beforehand. Once complete, the Pi transmits the data to a Teensy microcontroller that engages a pair of motors that control a robotic plotter.
Watch the video below to the Pankraz Piktograph in action!