Acrylic Pour Painting Platform - Spring 2021
Made for a client with cerebral palsy to help her create art independently
About the project
This was a group project where I collaborated with two other students from differing majors. We worked closely with a real life client to create a product that would fill a gap in her day to day living. Our client has cerebral palsy which limits her hand function and her ability to create acrylic pour paintings on her own. We worked with her to create a product that fit her specific needs to enable her to create art completely on her own! Click on the following links for more in depth information about the initial client interview or the entire process.
Joystick Demo
The image shows the joystick box which houses the arduino and has two external attachments - a power supply, and a connection to the main platform to control the servo motors. The detachability makes it easier for clean up and transportation.
The video demonstrates how the platform is controlled with the actual joystick. We 3D printed the custom joystick handle with the intention of requiring little force to manipulate and being able to grab it in multiple different ways.
Art Demo
The video shows us testing out the device before we had finalized some of the code and hardware, but the functionality was very promising and we were able to create some amazing art with our creation! We did not user test the final version because we did not want to get paint on it, but the images at the top of the page show the improvements to the main joint and the code.
We were amazed at how easy it was to create beautiful acrylic pour paintings with our device and were very excited to be able to test it out ourselves!
My favorite part
I loved being able to work in a multi disciplinary team, I think it really helped us come up with new and creative solutions faster. I also really enjoyed the create premise of the project which made it a lot of fun to work on and test.