Today many artists are using technology to recreate their works. The use of robots or robotic arms has allowed them to optimize their work and save on costs, since they have succeeded in replacing traditional machines (CNC), whose use would represent a high cost.
The world is opening up to a new experience where creativity and artists can see the possibility of forging new paths with the use of digital technology applied to art.
One of these options, where digital technology is combined with art, can be seen in the project by Andy Flessas, the American robotics designer and computer animator who programmed a show with robotic arms and mobile screens that demonstrate its great flexibility in movement and engineering development. His robotic motion programming software and hardware design are certified for ABB, KUKA and YASKAWA robots.
This artist’s extensive experience began with a degree in film animation from Columbia College Chicago in 1991. Around 1995, he was part of the industrial robot team at ABB Robotics and at the KUKA training institute.
This artist is known as andyRobot, owner of the company Robotic Arts, author of the Robot Animator software, and creator of the robot-controlled video screen (Robo Screen). He also integrated a tool for Auto desk Maya that provides computer animators with the ability to program the robots so that they execute smoother and more fluid movements (Robot Animator).
Flessas has created huge projects with stars like Bon Jovi, where they used RoboScreens technology for his world tour in 2009. Five ABB IRB 7600 robots were used, coupled in different alignments that moved to the rhythm of the music, showing high resolution images. There was even an elevated performance platform where the rock star performed.
Another entertainment star that used Flessas’s technology was Lady Gaga in her presentation at the 2016 Grammy Awards, where three robots were reused, of which two used the software he had developed to program and animate them, since they held the keyboard and they moved in synch with the music.
The developments of these systems was also used by NASA in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) that used the RobotAnimator system in the 2015 Asteroid Redirect Mission to improve the movements of a gravity-defying robot. This robotic investigation was also used for the Mars Sample Mission 2020.
Among his new projects is the Science Center Singapore engineering exhibition, featuring four RoboScreens that tilt, slide and spin in sync while showing the audience storytelling and videos through animation.
And he is preparing the third theater concept for acclaimed Chinese director Zhang Yimou, 2047 Apologue, which will premier in Beijing in September.
This visionary of robotics and the art of audiovisual entertainment will continue to develop innovative components for industrial robots that will revolutionize markets in many areas of application.