Built for Stanford’s ME 218A, the Pollock painter was an interactive painting machine that allowed users to create their own unique splatter paintings.

The painting was achieved by three paintbrushes of unique color, each individually actuated by a servomotor. These paintbrushes were fixed to a carousel driven by a stepper motor, allowing them to move along one axis. The user controlled this movement through the use of a joystick and actuated the paintbrushes by pressing corresponding buttons on the dashboard. After a set number of actuations the paintbrushes automatically moved to fixed paint trays to refill and then returned to their previous position. The user had 45 seconds to complete their painting as indicated by LED’s on the front of the painter.

The machine’s decision making is governed by nested state machines and is controlled by a TIVA Launchpad programmed in C. Furthermore, all circuit boards used were custom designed and constructed.