Painting with light (and robots)

A student at the Collège Rousseau of Geneva has demonstrated a great trick for combining robotics and art.  Mariane Brodier used a Thymio II educational robot, a DSLR camera with a manual shutter, and some clever (but beginner-friendly) programming to make beautiful images like the ones below.

More images, and some sample source code, are available at the project web site.

This is a great technique that might be inspiring to students of robotics who have a particular passion for creativity and art.  A Thymio II robot costs about $190, but any robot with a number of programmable LEDs and the ability to move around could work as well.  The programming required for this sort of project is relatitvely simple, and lends itself very nicely to an iterative approach that beginners should find very rewarding.  And yet, unlike many other programming challenges, every result can be unique and different, something no one has ever seen.

So I’m excited about this idea as a learning tool.  What do you think?  Weigh in with your thoughts below.

[Via IEEE Spectrum.]