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}
}