What happens when you outfit a robot arm used for manufacturing with RGB LEDs? Well, lots of things we'd surmise, but super detailed 3D light paintings are but some of the possibilities. A pair of human/computer interaction students at Carnegie Mellon have done just that, producing much more detailed results than previous efforts. Using a Kinect to capture the subject(s), a collection of 5,000 points are plotted over the course of about half and hour with various software applications handling the plotting, color, 3D modeling and more. To log the work in its entirety, DSLRs snap long exposure stills as the arm does its work. Perhaps that ABB IRB 6640 can moonlight as a portrait artist between construction projects.


Watch this: Robot arm composes intricate 3D light paintings