Guide: Robo Painting with Sphero

This practical guide gives tips and tricks to get started exploring robot painting using Sphero Bolt robots. Sphero Bolts are spherical robot units which can be controlled with your iPad using the Sphero Edu or Sphero Play app. If you have a different type of Sphero it is critical that you check if it is waterproof before you paint with it. Using Sphero Bolts to paint is not a new idea – many have found joy and wonder mixing Sphero and paint – this guide gives practical tips on what equipment you need and things to consider to get started. Many thanks to Kinnaird Waters ELCC who allowed us to practice with them and to members of the Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE) community who gave some pearls of wisdom.

What You Need

Sphero Bolt

A fully charged Sphero Bolt. Using other models of Sphero is fine but beware, not all are waterproof. ADE Emily Jones has tried using heavy duty cling film or the protective skin with Sphero Minis which worked well.

Sphero Play

This app needs to be on any iPad you wish to use with your Sphero. Make sure you have downloaded or requested it in plenty of time before you plan to start painting.

Poster Paint

One colour or many, it’s up to you! Squeezy bottles work well for little hands to independently apply the paint to the canvas. How much you need depends on the size of your painting area, we used a range of 14 colours of small 36ml tubes and this was enough for the A2 sized frame.

A ‘Frame’

This can be anything with sides that will stop the Sphero scooting off and painting the floor! We used the back of an old canvas, others have used cardboard boxes, upturned tables or hollow blocks – but be warned, this thing will get covered in paint.

Paper

We tried standard A4 paper and sugar paper. The sugar paper worked better as it got less soggy during painting and we could make a bigger painting area.

Container

ADE’s Harry Earnshaw and Paul Tullock suggested that giving the Sphero ‘a bath’ adds to the fun and they are right! Make sure you container is deep enough that the Sphero can float in the water.

Paper Towels

These come in handy for drying off the Sphero after its ‘bath’. They are also useful for quickly getting rid of excess paint when you want to start a new painting.

Connecting the Sphero

To connect the Sphero Bolt open the Sphero Play app and follow the on screen instructions.

Choose your Sphero from the options. We are using Sphero Bolt so we chose Bolt.

Bring your Sphero Bolt close to the iPad as it scans the area for available Bolts.

Your iPad will automatically connect to your Bolt.

Calibrating and Driving the Sphero

Once connected you have to calibrate or ‘aim’ your Sphero Bolt to make sure it drives properly. While on the screen below a blue light will blink on your Sphero. Make sure you line up the top of your iPad with the flashing light, use the circle to swivel your Sphero until it is in line.

Once you have calibrated you’ll automatically move to the joystick screen where you can control your Sphero using your finger. You may need to recalibrate again, to do this hit the green button at the bottom in the middle. To explore other ways to control your Sphero tap the blue steering wheel icon on the bottom left. Tapping on the settings cog in the top right hand corner allows you to change the colour, speed and other settings of your Sphero.

It is helpful to know that the joystick sometimes moves around the screen. Tapping once anywhere on the screen will move the centre of the joystick to this place.

Provocation and Getting Started

We began by setting up the space and materials and then telling the children we were going to paint with a robot. We put the Sphero inside the frame and had turns driving it to get used to the controls and explore any questions children had (we tested to see if the robot could drive up a hill by elevating the frame a little, then we wondered if it could push a toy car and we stuck a toy bat to him to see if he would fall off when the robot moved).

After this we introduced the artist Jackson Pollock (thanks to ADE Harry Earnshaw for this idea) with two simple slides shown on another iPad. We asked if the children knew any artists and if they could remember their names then showed a picture of Pollock and some of his paintings.

We put a piece of paper in the middle of the frame and chose colours and squeezed blobs of paint around the outside of the paper (avoiding the corners and trying not to put the paint too close to the edges of the frame). From there we drove our Sphero around through the blobs of paint and over the paper.

Giving the Sphero a Bath

After a while the Sphero becomes covered in paint. We asked why we might want to clean him: “He can’t see, he can’t see!”, “He’s all covered up,” and “The paint is too on him he needs window wipers!” were our answers.

Make sure your Sphero model is waterproof before you give it a bath!

Pop the Sphero in your container full of water (make sure there is enough water that the Sphero is floating) and drive your Sphero, when it hits the edge of the container it will spin and spin and spin as long as you keep driving. Soon all the paint will come off. Take it out and dry it off and start again!

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Enquiry, Discovery and Connections

We had lots of colour related enquiry about what might happen when we mixed colours, or what colour the ‘bath’ water would be. We also discovered that the robot couldn’t get into the corners because it was round and the corners were square and that the robot was too big to get the paint at the edges. We also discovered that sometimes the robot got stuck to the paper and it curled up ‘like a sausage roll’ or ‘like he’s in his bed’. We explored direction and how if we only dragged our finger a little the robot moved more slowly. Some children also enjoyed looking at the abstract paint and finding things in it: “There is a fish!”, “That looks like a bird,”, “Look there is your bat!”, “That looks like a dragon and that’s its fire,” “X marks the spot.”