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Re:Show HN: Robot that copies artist's exact strokes to repl... by TheOtherHobbes on Monday August 24, 2015 @05:47PM (#10113104)
The usual solution is a proportional-integral-differential (PDI) controller driven by position measurements.

The system has a resonant frequency that depends on the damping, mass of the motor, and brush friction. Those set a hard limit on the maximum possible speed.

PDI will get you close to that speed, but there's always going to be a trade-off between speed and accuracy.

From the test, you're still quite a way out from perfect repeatability. (I prefer the automated version, because the smoother strokes look slightly better.)

I suspect you'll find that PDI with a thicker medium like oils/acrylics will be harder because the brush friction will be less consistent. And in fact real paintings are often created with a range of brush sizes and perhaps a range of palette knives - so building a robot to handle all of that isn't going to be trivial.

Re:Show HN: Robot that copies artist's exact strokes to repl... by LukeShu on Monday August 24, 2015 @06:17PM (#10113217)
The first time you wrote "PDI", I assumed it was a typo for "PID", but you kept writing it. I'm curious, what's your background that you know it as "PDI"?
Re:Show HN: Robot that copies artist's exact strokes to repl... by chucksmash on Wednesday August 26, 2015 @07:13AM (#10122173)
"The usual solution is a proportional-integral-differential (PDI) controller driven by position measurements."