An art exhibition at a Pennsylvania museum is hoping to attract the ghost of a Philadelphia artist using nude models and ghost-detecting robots. 

The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts exhibit is the brainchild of robotic art expert Fernando Orellana, who has developed robots that detect and respond to electric and magnetic fields.

A selection of Eakins' photographs will also be on display, just in case his ghost is a no-show. Photo: www.pafa.org

Orellana is hoping his robots will summon the ghost of Thomas Eakins, an artist and photographer who died 100 years ago. The exhibition is being held in the same building that Eakins taught classes using nude models in.

Eleven models have volunteered to pose nude and wait for the ghost of Thomas Eakins to render them. 

The exhibit contains four of Orellana's robots. The first will hold Eakins’ original watercolor box of paints and brushes and open it upon his command. The second will move a red armchair that Eakins used in many of his paintings. The third will mix colors based on EMF commands and the fourth will control an arm to draw any image Eakins’ ghost directs it to, Mysterious Universe reported.

And if Eakins doesn't show up, visitors can always busy themselves by admiring a collection of his paintings and photographs.