Press Release
ARTificial Autonomous Robot by Titus Ebbecke Receives the Bronze A' Design Award in Robotics, Automaton and Automation Design
Titus Ebbecke recognized for robotics, automaton and automation design by the international grand jury of the 2019 - 2020 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 23, 2020 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has confirmed the Bronze A' Design Award in the Robotics, Automaton and Automation Design category for ARTificial Autonomous Robot by Titus Ebbecke, designed for University of Applied Sciences Wuerzburg-Schweinfurt. The award was conferred within the 2019 - 2020 A' Design Award & Competition and was determined through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who assessed anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
What the Bronze A' Design Award Means
The Bronze A' Design Award is given to outstanding designs that showcase a high degree of creativity and practicality. It recognizes the dedication and skill of designers who produce work that stands out for its thoughtful development and innovative use of materials and technology. These designs are acknowledged for their professional execution and potential to influence industry standards positively. Winning this award highlights the designer's ability to blend form and function effectively, offering solutions that enhance people's lives and wellbeing.
Regarding ARTificial Autonomous Robot
ARTificial is an autonomous painting robot that creates art with almost no human authorship. A generative adversarial network produces a new portrait, and a novel algorithm converts the digital image into coordinates. An industrial robot then paints the portrait on canvas with acrylic. After two buttons are pressed, the machine selects a random motif, takes paint, cleans the brush and works until the artwork is finished. A foundation of wood, concrete and steel supports safe operation. The installation questions whether art creation belongs only to intelligent beings.
About Titus Ebbecke
Titus is a german Human-Computer-Interaction designer. He holds a bachelor degree in Design from the University of Applied Sciences Wuerzburg-Schweinfurt. During his time there, he focused on creating demos and products which inform and move all kinds of users. Titus not only believes the next decade will be shaped by the way humans communicate with computers but also that the way how computers communicate with us will do the same during the following century. Titus works range from tangible interfaces which make satellite data accessible to a wide audience, to fully autonomous industrial robots enabled by machine learning.
Award Record
Titus Ebbecke is a winner of 1 A' Design Award, including this recognition.
About the A' Robotics, Automaton and Automation Design Award
The A' Robotics Design Award is an international robotics design competition recognizing good robotics designs by robotics designers and engineers worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to robotics designers, automation engineers, robotics brands and robot manufacturers from all countries. Typical entries include industrial robots, medical robots, agricultural robots, domestic robots, autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots. The awarded robotics designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/robotics
About A' Design Award & Competition
Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/95165
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/95165
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!95165
- Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/263930
- Further Information from the Laureate: https://titusebbecke.com/artificial.html
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- ARTificial Autonomous Robot
- Function
- Autonomous Robot
- Category
- Robotics, Automaton and Automation Design
- Discipline
- Service Design
- Industry
- Manufacturing and Innovation
- Colors
- Ghost White, Black, Saddle Brown, Gainsboro and Chocolate
- Images
- 5
- Client
- University of Applied Sciences Wuerzburg-Schweinfurt
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Titus Ebbecke
- Country
- Germany
- Recognition
- Bronze A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2019 - 2020
- Design ID
- #95165
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- This robot is among the first fully autonomous machines which create art with barely any human authorship. Upon starting the system, the installation generates a completely new portrait with artificial intelligence. A novel algorithm converts the digital AI art into coordinates and the robot then paints it on canvas with acrylic. The sculpture works without human supervision and challenges the belief of art creation as a property of human or artificial intelligence.
- Inspiration
- Intelligence and consciousness seem to be almost exclusive to the human species. Similarly, the creation of art appears to be strongly bound to the intelligence of its author. This exclusivity between art creation and intelligence is so strong, that proving whether machines can be artists, is an essential step towards true artificial intelligence. As Art and intelligence still lack definitions, this project provokes discussions on whether this machine has these attributes.
- Research
- This project is based on image synthesis with artificial intelligence and the combination of machine learning with robotics. A novel algorithm and method have been developed, to research whether art-creation can be linked to intelligence and if this sculpture qualifies as an authentic artist. This research has been conducted in cooperation with KUKA and was supervised under the head of corporate research. The algorithmic basis of this image-to-coordinate-translation will be published in 2020.
- Challenge
- This project required contacting a robot manufacturer, getting funds, transporting the robot and installing its numerous control interfaces. A foundation needed to be designed and constructed, to ensure the safe operation of this dangerous piece of industrial equipment. Finally, the author had to learn how to program a robot, as well as training the artificial Intelligence for multiple days on the most powerful GPU in existence and developing a completely novel algorithm for converting an AI image into coordinates in a safe manner.
- Realization and Technology
- The images are created with a generative adversarial network. The algorithm is written in Python with OpenCV and NumPy. The KUKA robot and the computer are connected with an Ethernet connection. The custom made foundation has been created out of wood, concrete, and steel. A novel algorithm has been developed for this project. The robot is capable of painting unlimited images without human supervision.
- Operation and Interaction
- The key element of this project is its autonomy. The robot decides what to generate on a random basis and paints as it wishes. This is an attempt to emulate human artists and their creative freedom as much as possible. Two buttons need to be pressed and the robot will start to generate a random image, take paint, clean its brush and will continue to paint until the artwork is finished.
- Project Duration and Location
- This bachelor thesis has been created from February 2019 to July 2019. It demonstrated its ability during a two-day exhibition in August 2019, where it painted over 10 hours in front of a hundred visitors.
- Specifications
- Dimensions: 3000 X 2000 X 1500mm Weight: 450kg
- Keywords
- artificial intelligence, ai, generative art, robot, industrial robot, algorithmic, software engineering, installation, robot, gan, generative adversarial network
