Robot Hand Draws Sloppy, Creepy Portraits

Artist creates robot arm that draws portraits like a human.

If you were lucky enough to have Paul, the portrait-drawing robot honor you with a portrait, first you may be impressed by the fact that a disembodied arm is drawing a portrait of you, and then you might be unimpressed by the somewhat messy and borderline demented piece of art that is produced. That is until you are told by engineering scientist turned artist Patrick Tresset that it's "working as intended".

So why create a robot that is intentionally lacking precision and grace? Well that's because most humans lack the precision and grace required to draw wonderfully accurate portraits. Tresset told FastCoDesign, "I try to make robotic installations that touch people. I believe that a robot that slightly fails is more interesting, more