Robo-Sax Quartet: A Semi-Automatic Robotic Saxophone System for Augmented Ensemble Performance

Gou Koutaki, and Masatoshi Hamanaka

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract

We present a semi-automatic robotic saxophone system that assists saxophone key operations using servo-motor–driven actuators. The system augments conventional acoustic saxophones by supporting fingering actions while leaving breath control and musical expression to the human performer. We developed four robotic saxophones—soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone—which can be performed simultaneously to enable a robot-assisted saxophone quartet. Due to differences in instrument size, key layout, and performer posture across the four saxophone types, the placement and mechanism of actuators required careful design. Through iterative prototyping and experimentation, we identified suitable actuator configurations for each instrument. To support intuitive performance, we developed a dedicated music-game-style graphical user interface, enabling wireless communication and battery-powered operation. This design allows performers to handle the instruments in a manner comparable to conventional saxophone performance. The robotic saxophone offers the advantage of reliable and error-free execution of rapid fingering patterns that are challenging for human players. Through performance demonstrations, we show that the proposed system achieves practical usability as an augmented musical instrument.

Citation

Gou Koutaki, and Masatoshi Hamanaka. 2026. Robo-Sax Quartet: A Semi-Automatic Robotic Saxophone System for Augmented Ensemble Performance. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20784318 [PDF]

BibTeX Entry

@inproceedings{nime2026_104,
 abstract = {We present a semi-automatic robotic saxophone system that assists saxophone key operations using servo-motor–driven actuators. The system augments conventional acoustic saxophones by supporting fingering actions while leaving breath control and musical expression to the human performer. We developed four robotic saxophones—soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone—which can be performed simultaneously to enable a robot-assisted saxophone quartet. Due to differences in instrument size, key layout, and performer posture across the four saxophone types, the placement and mechanism of actuators required careful design. Through iterative prototyping and experimentation, we identified suitable actuator configurations for each instrument. To support intuitive performance, we developed a dedicated music-game-style graphical user interface, enabling wireless communication and battery-powered operation. This design allows performers to handle the instruments in a manner comparable to conventional saxophone performance. The robotic saxophone offers the advantage of reliable and error-free execution of rapid fingering patterns that are challenging for human players. Through performance demonstrations, we show that the proposed system achieves practical usability as an augmented musical instrument.},
 address = {London, United Kingdom},
 articleno = {104},
 author = {Gou Koutaki and Masatoshi Hamanaka},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.20784318},
 editor = {Benedict Gaster and João Tragtenberg and Anna Xambó and Tom Mitchell},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {June},
 note = {},
 numpages = {8},
 pages = {874--881},
 title = {Robo-Sax Quartet: A Semi-Automatic Robotic Saxophone System for Augmented Ensemble Performance},
 track = {paper},
 url = {http://nime.org/proceedings/2026/nime2026_104.pdf},
 year = {2026}
}