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Barrel Project: A First Case Study in Motion
80-20 Aluminum Extrusion ---> Base ---> Brushes ---> Camera ---> Camera Arm ---> Connector Block ---> Electronics ---> Ground ---> Homing and Limits ---> Servomotors ---> Slip Rings ---> What Comes Around Goes Around
Motion control is the art and science of accurately and reproducibly controlling the position and velocity of actuators and the objects they are moving. The actuators are most frequently electric motors, and the objects they move can be almost anything mechanical. In our day to day lives, we do not encounter many examples of motion control. The most conspicuous example of industrial motion control would be assembly robots, but autopilots and CNC machine tools also embody the same technology. On the extreme end of motion control esoterica lie the recently developed tele-surgical apparatus, and semiautonomous and autonomous interplanetary probes On the consumer/domestic side of the discipline, the cruise control in a car, the tape transport in a good VCR, and the head motor in a hard-disk drive are three examples. When shown openly, motion control can impart highly deliberate gestural qualities to moving art works ranging in temperament from delicate to brutish. When the device is not shown openly, it can be a manipulator, and the effects of the movement are experienced indirectly as in the case of the "barrel mover" described herein.
This is a first case study in applying motion control to art making. The primary objective is to develop a collection of tools, materials and techniques to enable interested persons or groups to engage motion control as quickly as possible. This is still a work in progress. To begin, a test case was necessary. Jon Fisher, who had been working on a Java language interface to the motion control system used here, created a context to field test some of our existing methodologies. The results of this first attempt are outlined here with many notes on procedure and practice.
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