The first $100,000 international student competition for robotic art is open for team registration. Student teams from Carnegie-Mellon University, Cornell University, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Les Ateliers and Palo Verde Magnet High School are among the first to register in Robot Art 2016.
November 25, 2015 – (Seattle) Robot Art, the first annual international student competition for robotic art with $100,000 in prizes, is open for student, team and faculty registration at RobotArt.org. Robotics and design students from Carnegie-Mellon University, Cornell University, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Les Ateliers of Paris, France, and Palo Verde Magnet High School of Tucson, Arizona are among the first to form teams to compete for a portion of $100,000 in cash awards for their accredited educational institution. Registration is 100% free, and the challenge is to create something beautiful, both technically and aesthetically, using robotics manipulating physical brushes to paint a work of art.
I want to support education and humanize technology,” said Andrew Conru, creator of the Robot Art contest.““The best-selling book, ‘Rise of the Robots’ calls genuine artistic creativity ‘something we associate exclusively with the human mind.’ If robots can communicate through artwork that provokes humans to think, feel and do, this gives us a powerful new way to communicate, and a means to shift public perceptions about robots and artificial intelligence.”
With no registration cost of any kind, Robot Art 2016 is designed to include as many participants as possible. Teams can compete in two different categories: “telerobotics,” where a human artist controls the robot remotely, similar to the way a surgeon can operate remotely on a patient, and “fully automated,” where a stand-alone robot makes all the decisions as to how and where paint is to be applied to canvas. In the fully-automated category, sophisticated software programs and even video feedback can be used to create unique designs.
While most teams are using existing robotic arms, the contest is open to custom hardware. As this is the first year of the contest, the focus is on the technical aspects of putting paint onto canvas.Teams can leverage their efforts this year on future contests as there is funding for at least 5 years.
Teams can enter up to six paintings in each of the competition categories, and may upload robot-made artwork to the RobotArt.org gallery at any time, now through April 15. Details and team signup can be found at http://robotart.org.
Robot Art 2016 has attracted robotics, mechanical engineering and design students working on senior capstone projects, robotics or design class projects and graduate students involved in robotic planning and image processing – especially those who have an appreciation for art. The contest is open to any student or student group worldwide. The prize money for international students will be split 25% to the school and 75% to the US-based charity with international impact.
“We will have a combination of professional art critics, tech celebrities, and the general public score the artwork,” said Conru. Anyone can also sign-up now to be notified when it’s time to come see the artwork submissions and vote.”
Those with a Facebook account can register at http://robotart.org/facebook-login/, to be notified when artwork is submitted for competition and it is time to vote, as the public will play a role in determining the winners.
Above, students from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology demonstrate an early experiment in programming a robotic arm to put paint to canvas, as they prepare their entry n Robot Art 2016, the first international student competition for robot-made art. You can read a case study on how Rose-Hulman’s “Team Bob Ross” got inspired to create Robot Art here.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: A complete list of schools and contacts for students and student teams enrolled in the Robot Art competition is available by request. If you’d like high-resolution photos, or to interview Andrew Conru, go to http://robotart.org/about-us/
About Robot Art 2016: (www.RobotArt.org): Robot Art is an international student competition for robot-made painted works of art. To learn more about the world’s first $100,000 student competition for robotic art, visit http://robotart.org.