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Jul 02, 2023

Tattoos By Robotic Arm With Pinpoint Accuracy

Tattoos are an ancient art, and as with most art, is usually the domain of human

Tattoos are an ancient art, and as with most art, is usually the domain of human expertise. The delicate touch required takes years to master, but with the capacity for perfect accuracy and precision movements, enlisting a robotic arm and some clever software to tattoo a willing canvas is one step closer thanks to the efforts of [Pierre Emm] and [Johan da Silveira].

They began by using a 3D printer modified to ‘print’ with a tattoo needle. Catching the interest of the Applied Research Lab at Autodesk, the next logical step was to use an industrial robot arm get a human under the tattooing machine — dubbed Tatoué — after scanning the limb in question and loading it into Dynamo, their parametric design environment to map the design onto the virtual limb.

[Pierre] put his leg on the line with the help of the handyman's secret weapon to demonstrate Tatoué's potential for some heavy metal ink. If you want a less permanent alternative to some robot art, a 3D printer can still sketch some impressive pieces.

[via Itay Ramot and Gizmodo]