If you're a nerd like me, you've probably dreamed of commanding a robot army with your thoughts. I am creating that cyborg experience with a fusion of art and cutting edge technology. Light Play is an interactive robotic art installation involving a massive field of delta robots that move and change color based on a participant's neural input.

The delta is a simple little tripod with a lot of potential! Delta robots are traditionally used as pick and place machines on assembly lines and the like. They're fast, agile, and have a wide range of motion. They also happen to be pretty fun to build. I chose to make a large number for my installation for all of those reasons.

I used to be a painter. I made images like the ones on this site and never imagined that I would one day be designing and building robots of my own. There is an intimidating veil of mystery hanging over the world of electronics which kept me from diving into tinkering for years. I figured the learning curve was too hard to overcome and didn't really know where to start in the first place. It was due to a very specific chain of events in my life that lead me to the maker community, otherwise I'd still just be dreaming of the things I'm creating today. I know there are others out there in the same position I was... So to promote some techie awareness I'm leading by example. In a few months I'll be making my delta robot available as a kit so others can get their feet wet with soldering and fabrication. Check out the details on my Robot Army Starter Kit here.

 

I designed and created my first robotic thing when I was attending art school in Chicago. It was a dancing light bulb flower like the ones you see in the illustration above, made to dance and sway around when it sensed someone was in its vicinity. After I successfully gave my flower life (though it was hardly perfect) I was hooked. If there was nothing to stop me from figuring out how to make one, why not make the environment I envisioned in my art?

Over time I adopted the delta robot type over my original 'light bulb flower' because my design was based more on aesthetics than practicality and as a result was difficult to control. I made many delta prototypes out of found items like tupperware containers, plastic hangers, and anything else I could force into the moving parts for my newest revision.

With help and inspiration I worked the design into what it is today... a hardly little beast powered by servos and held together with minimal hardware, giving it a streamline appearance.

Right now I have a family of six identical deltas : Jeden, Smych, Squanto, Schatze, Santo, and Sznurek. They help me write code and develop new ways of controlling the large collective I will have one day.

...I just need to make a couple hundred more. The easiest way to get my parts produced would be by having an injection mold tooled. However, this process gets expensive fast. Releasing my robot as a kit will also help fund production to this level, and warrant making a higher volume of parts than I need for my installation. So whether you want to see my field of robots a reality, or just want to make your own and hack it, you should support my cause and grab a kit once my Kickstarter is live!