The Roball Sculpture

thingiverse

The installation is comprised of five interconnected tracks that span approximately 15 meters of rail crafted from 3mm brass rod, totaling 106 intricately designed 3D-Printed pieces. The initial design phase in Google SketchUp required around 150 hours to complete. Over the course of two years, I dedicated my spare time to constructing this sculpture. Every detail was meticulously hand-bent, welded, and adjusted to perfection. The total construction time amounted to approximately 250 hours. You can view a video of the installation in action at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8BOKpcJi2Y. This interactive sculpture functions as follows: Upon pressing a button, the robot arm picks up a ball and randomly selects a track to place it on before returning to its starting position. Once the ball reaches the end of the track, you can press the button again to initiate another cycle. The Pololu Mini Maestro 12-Channel USB Servo Controller (https://www.pololu.com/product/1352) controls all aspects of the sculpture. To achieve randomness in track selection, I leveraged analog sensors that detect the ball's position at the pickup point. These sensors capture varying values depending on the ball's orientation due to its surface characteristics. This data is then used to calculate the next track for the ball. The robot arm's design was heavily influenced by the EEZYbotArm (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1015238). You can find the program used in the sculpture within a provided zip file. This installation was actually completed in 2016, but it has taken me some time to publish it. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out. I'll do my best to provide answers and ensure your satisfaction.