Arduino Drawing Robot Fundraiser
Over summer 2020 I put together a robot capable of automatically creating monochrome art based on this design by engineer Arnab Kumar Das.
Once assembled, I used this machine to create art pieces and sell them to raise money for two organizations in need. These organizations are the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Greater Boston Food Bank.
By the end of the fundraiser on August 7th, 2020, $1310 has been raised from 51 donors and 82 drawings have been created. Thanks to the generosity of Amazon and its gift matching program, the $655 raised for the NAACP has been matched and we were able to donate a total of $1,310 to this organization. Likewise, the $655 for the Greater Boston Food Bank has been matched by FedEx, amounting to a total donation of $1,310.
The first step of printing an image is editing on Adobe Photoshop. The image must be altered such that it can be easily converted into black and white.
After photoshop, the image is imported into Makelangelo software where a black and white rendering is produced. This can be saved as a dxf file.
Using the dxf file from Makelangelo, another software called Inkscape can create a G code file. This file serves as directions for the printer to follow in terms of the x-axis, y-axis, and lifting the pen up and down.
Finally the G-code is pushed to the Arduino using Universal G-code Sender software. Through this app you may visualize where the pen should be positioned and the estimated time remaining in each drawing.
The video to the right shows the picture of the airplane being printed. It was posted on social media as an advertisement for my fundraiser.
Below are a few drawings created fully automatically by the drawing robot
