How SPARSH Works
SPARSH has four parts. The first three are technology we built. The fourth is the artist themselves — supported by a small companion device called RANG SAATHI. The system starts with the artist creating, and ends with the artist signing the finished work.
SRIJAN
Create
SPARSH ENGINE
Process
VISTAAR
Expand
HASTAKSHAR
(with RANG SAATHI)
Sign — independently
SRIJAN (सृजन)
The Drawing Pad
What it is: A tilted USB graphics tablet that the artist draws on with a stylus held in their foot, mouth, or hand.
What it does:Captures the artist's strokes with pressure sensitivity. Has built-in geometric helpers — symmetry and replication tools — that all three of our mentor artists asked us to build.
SPARSH ENGINE (स्पर्श)
The Software Brain
What it is: About 600 lines of Python software, written by us, running on a laptop.
What it does:Smooths shaky strokes, scales the artist's drawing 3× larger, and runs the geometric helpers using NumPy mathematics. The engine makes seven autonomous decisions during every session — none of them about what to paint, only about how to faithfully translate the artist's intent into precise robot motion.
VISTAAR (विस्तार)
The Drawing Robot
What it is: A belt-driven X-Y gantry built on an aluminium frame. Two NEMA 17 stepper motors, A4988 drivers, an SG90 servo for the pen lift. Built by us.
What it does:Draws the structural outline of the painting on A2 paper — 3× larger than the artist's input on SRIJAN. The artist still designs every line. VISTAAR just scales it up.
HASTAKSHAR (हस्ताक्षर)
The Artist's Signature, Made Independently
What it is: HASTAKSHAR is the artist's own completion of the painting — adding colour, shading, and detail. RANG SAATHI (रंग साथी) is the small companion device we built to make this independent — a rotating palette the artist controls with a single foot pedal.
What it does: Lets the artist work alone during the colour stage. The palette has 6 colour wells, 2 sponges, 2 water cups (placed 180° apart for mass balance), and a central mixing area. The artist taps the foot pedal; the palette rotates one position; a mechanical lock holds it in place; the artist paints. No human helper needed.
Why This Is Real Autonomy, Not Just Automation
A printer takes a saved file and prints it. A remote-controlled arm does exactly what the operator says. SPARSH does neither. It takes a messy human signal — a wobbly stroke, a tap on a pedal, a hover near a colour — and turns it into precise mechanical action, in real time. That bridge from imperfect human intent to precise machine execution is what makes SPARSH a real robot system.