Dezeen at IKEA Festival: robot paints student artwork on day five
It's a busy Saturday at IKEA Festival in Milan, and in our latest video update we speak to the creator of a robot that paints with brushstrokes like a human.
Engineer Patric Lüthi's machine applies acrylic paint to a huge canvas using nozzles that imitate brush strokes of varying widths. He is demonstrating the robot's capabilities by painting artworks by students from Swiss university ÉCAL.
"The painting robot uses acrylic colour on a canvas, which allows us to produce paintings in an industrial way," Lüthi explains.
"We want to produce affordable paintings with a quality as if made by a human."
The artworks created at the festival are prototypes, but Lüthi believes his machine could eventually mass-produce paintings to be sold in IKEA.
IKEA Festival takes place from 4 to 9 April in a 3,500-square-metre warehouse at Via Ventura 14 in Milan. We're broadcasting video highlights across Dezeen, as well as our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter channels.
Watch the videos as we publish them at www.dezeen.com/ikeafestival.
Keep up with all our Milan coverage here, and use our #milanogram hashtag competition on Instagram for the chance of winning £500 to spend at Dezeen Watch Store.