Robot art: Portrait by a 'Portrait Drawing Robot' created by Matsushita Electric Industrial Company, Ltd (Panasonic), 1991

Robot art : one of six drawings by robots, made during the 'Robotics Japan: Robot Technology - Past, Present and Future' exhibition held at the Science Museum 17 September - 31 October 1991. Comprising one of two portraits drawn by a 'Portrait Drawing Robot', created by Matsushita Electric Industrial Company, Ltd (Panasonic), 1991, signed Panasonic.

Robotics Japan Label Text Notes:

This robot draws portraits. This is a complicated task showing both how delicately the robot moves and the way it can be controlled by the information in an electronically processed image. The image from the camera is processed. The computer registers the thickness of the lines and identifies whether they are straight or curved. This information is then converted into instructions for the robot which recreates the lines on the paper as coarse, fine, straight or curved brush strokes. These gradually build up into the portrait but the order in which the brush strokes are made is determined according to the pressure required on the brush, which is very different from the way an artist would paint a portrait. [Demonstration used black ink and an artist's brush] The machine is also equipped to communicate in speech, using a "voice synthesiser".