Robot Cube
A robotic-arm performance combining spatial tracking and generative projection.
- Year
- 2021
- Role
- Design engineering
- Tags
- Interactive DesignRoboticsSpatial MappingGenerative Image
A robotic performance where cube, arm, and projection move as one image system.
Robot Cube combines a large robotic arm, custom cube surfaces, and live projection mapping. The cube is both object and screen: the projected texture follows the robot's pose and motion.
A robotic performance where cube, arm, and projection move as one image system.
Robot Cube combines a large robotic arm, custom cube surfaces, and live projection mapping. The cube is both object and screen: the projected texture follows the robot's pose and motion.
Before the live system, I tested how different textures behave on moving cube faces: contour fields, particles, gradients, scan patterns, high-contrast mapped imagery.
The final install put those studies on the robot. As the arm moved the cube, the projection read its orientation and turned the motion into something you could watch.
Under the performance is a mapping system: real-time TCP communication, trajectory control, projector calibration, projection mapping, and IK analysis all had to line up for the image to stay stuck to the cube.
The texture library is where the system gets its voice. Rather than treat the arm as a neutral actuator, the project used motion and mapping to give the machine a presence on stage.
