Robotic Sand Drawings

Registration Link

Workshop Registration opens September 8th, 2025! Click the link above to be notified when registration becomes available.

Refund and Change Policy

Important: Refund and change requests will not be accepted beyond Monday, October 20th.

Location : FIU Courtyard

Workshop Team

Dr. Madeline Gannon - Multidisciplinary Designer and Inventor
Also known as “The Robot Whisperer”

Workshop Description

This hands-on workshop teaches how to create large-scale sand drawings using cable-driven robots at the FIU courtyard. Participants will learn about hardware setup, calibration techniques, and develop custom control software to create their own sand drawings that will then be documented through aerial photography.

Learning objectives include: how to deploy and manage robotic systems in outdoor environments; reimagining drawing machines for large-scale contexts; creating interactive software for expressive drawing.

The workshop is built around a new iteration of a lightweight cable-robot system that previously debuted at ROB|ARCH 2024. The system uses four poles with pulley anchor points, four robotic winches called Koriobots, a central control server and custom electronics, and a custom end effector for sand manipulation. We will provide shade, power, wifi, and cold drinks.

Participants will gain practical skills deploying robots in outdoor environments, experience writing interactive software for creative applications, and collaborate in a relaxed courtyard setting. The workshop balances technical learning with a one-of-a-kind experience at FIU. Expect creative experimentation and collaborative learning. Documentation will capture both the technical achievements and the collaborative atmosphere that emerges when computational design meets outdoor computing.

Keywords

interactive, robot, drawing, drawing machine, courtyard, collaboration

Workshop Schedule

This is a 1 Day, 8 Hour Workshop

Pre-Workshop (optional attendance): 2.5 hours

6AM – 8:30AM

• Set up camp
• Install anchor poles
• Route cables & install end-effector
• Calibration

Introduction: 1 hour

9AM – 10:30AM

• Welcome
• System Walkthrough
• Calibration Process
• Software Overview
• Demonstrations

Software Development: 2 hours

11AM – 1PM

• API Overview
• Templates: Grasshopper, Processing, Blender, Python
• Examples: parametric patterns, text, camera input

Lunch: 1 hour

1PM – 2PM

Production, Documentation & Hang: 2PM to Sunset

• Drawing and documenting together
• Open to Public

Location

FIU SOA Courtyard
Florida International University, Miami, FL

Prerequisites

• Interest in robotics and outdoor computing
• Basic understanding of software development helpful but not required
• Willingness to work in outdoor courtyard environment
• Comfort with collaborative, experimental learning

Workshop Outcomes

Participants will leave the workshop with:

1. Practical experience deploying robotic systems in outdoor environments
2. Understanding of cable-driven robot hardware and calibration
3. Skills in developing interactive software for creative applications
4. Experience with large-scale drawing machines and sand manipulation
5. Documentation of their collaborative sand drawings
6. Unique beachfront computational design experience

About the Instructor

Dr. Madeline Gannon is a multidisciplinary designer and inventor forging new futures for human-robot relations. Also known as “The Robot Whisperer”, Gannon blends techniques in art, design, computer science, and robotics to convince robots to do things they were never intended to do: from transforming giant industrial robots into living, breathing mechanical creatures, to taming hordes of autonomous machines to behave like a pack of animals.

Gannon believes that technology is a cultural medium, and tunes her work to engage communities across science and society. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Copernicus Science Centre, and has been exhibited at international cultural institutions, published at academic conferences, and profiled at global media outlets, such as the BBC, the Guardian, FT, the Science Channel, WIRED, FastCompany, Dezeen, and The Verge.

Gannon has been a Knight Foundation Awardee, a World Economic Forum Cultural Leader, a Robotics & AI Researcher at NVIDIA, and an artist in residence at ETH Zurich, Autodesk Pier 9, and the Carnegie Mellon STUDIO for Creative Inquiry. Analytics Insight has named her a 'Top 10 Women in Robotics Industry' and 'World's 50 Most Renowned Women in Robotics'. Gannon holds a M.Arch from Florida International University, and a Ph.D in Computational Design from Carnegie Mellon University.