Our human-machine workflow involve using a sandbox as a zen drawing template. By using sand as the drawing medium, it is easy to create and reset patterns. Modeling sand is on one side a predictable action, on the other it also entails an unpredictable component due to the complex behavior of granular materials.
The workflow was initially designed as follows:
Work Flow
The purpose of the Zen Robot Garden is to create an experience where the user can view the robot drawing patterns in the sand both as a meditative experience (such as creating a mandala or a zen garden pattern) and as an educational experience to learn how symmetries, scaling and other geometric operations can entail very different results based on a set of different input parameters. There is a component of surprise in seeing what the final sand pattern looks like, and this is due to two elements: the hard-to-predict aspect of the completed pattern the self-erasing and complex behavior of the sand as it is being modeled As the users continues to explore the constraint space of the sandbox curves, they can implicitly infer the parametric rules and therefore learn how to bring out different patterns. The ABB 6-axis robot uses a tool with a fork-like head to act within the same sandbox as the user, in order to create small, rake-like patterns in the sand similar to those that can be seen in a true zen garden. The collaboration between the robot and human user allows the user to create complex forms out of simple shapes and drawing movements. Watching the robot perform the task puts the user in a relaxing state similar to the meditative function of a zen garden.
Process
As a pattern or shape is being drawn, Motive captures the motion of the hand tool moving through the sand. Grasshopper takes in a raw CSV file as an input and it preprocesses it in the following way: -points are oriented in the correct way with respect to the Rhino model. -the points that are not part of the drawn pattern (for example the ones recorded when the hand was moving in or out the area) are dropped. -curves are interpolated and smoothed out. The preprocessed input curve (or curves, in the case of a multiple curve), is passed to a GhPython component that dispatches the input according to determined parameters that are intrinsic to the input. In particular, the code checks whether the input curves are: -closed, open or self-intersecting. -long or short with respect to the dimensions of the box. -positioned with large or small relative angle with respect to the center or the box. -complex or simple.
