Physical Twin Is a Teleoperated Painting Robot
This interactive device reads input arm positions and plays back movements.
Painting, whether as an artistic pursuit or to protect surfaces, is normally a labor-intensive pursuit. There are, of course, exceptions such as automotive painting robots and the like. As a class project at the University of Stuttgart, Ekin Sila Sahin, Lior Skoury, and Simon Treml came up with their own take on the paint-bot in the form of Physical Twin.
The remote painting device is comprised of three parts: a mobile robotic unit that travels around on three wheels, a four-axis servo-driven arm, and a main controller board that a features a miniature model of the arm.
The Physical Twin is steered via a small joystick, and includes three sets of HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensors to keep it from bashing into obstacles. As seen in the first video below, an operator can manipulate the mini-arm to dip a paintbrush into an onboard bowl with paint inside, then maneuver the brush for application. The robot can also replay stored moves, shown nicely in the second clip.
Two Arduino Mega boards — or clones thereof — are used in the setup, and nRF24L01 transceivers are implemented for communication. Four potentiometers sense the mini-arm’s angular positions, while a small LCD and a trio of LEDs provide feedback on the controller. It’s a clean-looking build, constructed out of readily available foam.