Mechatronics-Driven Musical Expressivity for Robotic Percussionists

Ning Yang, Richard Savery, Raghavasimhan Sankaranarayanan, Lisa Zahray, and Gil Weinberg

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract

Musical expressivity is an important aspect of musical performance for humans as well as robotic musicians. We present a novel mechatronics-driven implementation of Brushless Direct Current (BLDC) motors in a robotic marimba player, named ANON, designed to improve speed, dynamic range (loudness), and ultimately perceived musical expressivity in comparison to state-of-the-art robotic percussionist actuators. In an objective test of dynamic range, we find that our implementation provides wider and more consistent dynamic range response in comparison with solenoid-based robotic percussionists. Our implementation also outperforms both solenoid and human marimba players in striking speed. In a subjective listening test measuring musical expressivity, our system performs significantly better than a solenoid-based system and is statistically indistinguishable from human performers.

Citation

Ning Yang, Richard Savery, Raghavasimhan Sankaranarayanan, Lisa Zahray, and Gil Weinberg. 2020. Mechatronics-Driven Musical Expressivity for Robotic Percussionists. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4813274

BibTeX Entry

@inproceedings{NIME20_26,
 abstract = {Musical expressivity is an important aspect of musical performance for humans as well as robotic musicians. We present a novel mechatronics-driven implementation of Brushless Direct Current (BLDC) motors in a robotic marimba player, named ANON, designed to improve speed, dynamic range (loudness), and ultimately perceived musical expressivity in comparison to state-of-the-art robotic percussionist actuators. In an objective test of dynamic range, we find that our implementation provides wider and more consistent dynamic range response in comparison with solenoid-based robotic percussionists. Our implementation also outperforms both solenoid and human marimba players in striking speed. In a subjective listening test measuring musical expressivity, our system performs significantly better than a solenoid-based system and is statistically indistinguishable from human performers.},
 address = {Birmingham, UK},
 author = {Yang, Ning and Savery, Richard and Sankaranarayanan, Raghavasimhan and Zahray, Lisa and Weinberg, Gil},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.4813274},
 editor = {Romain Michon and Franziska Schroeder},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {July},
 pages = {133--138},
 presentation-video = {https://youtu.be/KsQNlArUv2k},
 publisher = {Birmingham City University},
 title = {Mechatronics-Driven Musical Expressivity for Robotic Percussionists},
 url = {https://www.nime.org/proceedings/2020/nime2020_paper26.pdf},
 year = {2020}
}