ACM TechNews
This Robot Toots Its Own Flute
IEEE Spectrum (07/08)
Atsuo Takanishi, a professor of engineering at Waseda University, Tokyo,
has completed building the first member of his robotic orchestra, a
flute-playing robot. Takanishi hopes to eventually create a humanoid robot
orchestra. The next robot, currently in development, is a saxophone-playing
robot, though Takanishi believes the process will go much faster because he
started with one of the most difficult instruments. The robot is made of
two acrylic cylinders and bellows for the lungs, a vibrato mechanism to
imitate human vocal cords, an artificial tongue and lips made of a
thermoplastic rubber called Septon, two CCD cameras for eyes, and flexible
arms and fingers that can open and close. Getting the robot to produce a
melody started by working with professional players to create a performance
index of what constitutes the best flute sounds. The sounds were then
translated into mathematical formulations that the robot refers back to.
The researchers then programmed the robot's "organs" to produce a sound.
Once a sound was produced, the researchers adjusted different parameters
controlling the organs to adjust the sound until the robot eventually
produced the target sound. To make the procedure less laborious and more
autonomous, audio feedback control was added to allow the robot to make its
own adjustments. Additional computer intelligence was also added to allow
the robot to "read" Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) data and
translate it into the parameter controls to transform the data into playing
the flute. Takanishi says virtually any MIDI file can be downloaded into
the robot's computer and be reproduced unaided. Takanishi says the goals
of his research is to obtain a better understanding of human motor control,
develop robots that can mimic and respond to human emotions to improve
human-machine interactions, and produce humanoid robots that can perform
tasks like caring for the elderly or infirm.
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/jul08/6454
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