While I’m on the subject of robots, I had better mention this little guy.

He drives around his environment until he finds something to drum on, then he drums on it. Like a little robot version of me. Excellent.

Seriously though, this thing is awesome, it has a sampler on board that it uses to record the sound it makes while tapping on things, then he plays it back and drums along on top of it. Amazing.

Found him over at letsmakerobots.com.

Here is some info from the project page:

What it does? Basically:

• Navigate around, collect some data, avoid obstacles, until it finds something “worth playing on” (a single isolated object or a wide flat surface that it can find an angle onto)
• Snakes into place
• Plays some beats on what it have found, and samples this, checking it has a “good sound”
• Based on data collected in the area, and sample just made, then compose a little rhythm, and plays this along with the sample

Why? Well.. I was sitting thinking what I should do for my next robot, what it should do.. Listening to music.. making a rythm with some robot-parts.. Thought; “Hey, I will make a robot that drives around and plays on stuff”

Wicked.

Here is a much longer video showing him navigating around the creator’s home. It wasn’t until I saw this one that I realized he had a kick drum (that floor tapping thing).

Here’s a quick rundown of the specs:

Cost to build:
$120
Time to build:
20 hours

* Actuators / output devices: 6 geared motors in total, 2 speakers, sound sampler
* Control method: autonomous (very)
* CPU: Picaxe 28
* Operating system: Picaxe basic
* Power source: 4 AA batteries
* Programming language: Picaxe basic
* Sensors / input devices: SRF05, microphone
* Target environment: where ever there is something to play on

I was stumbling around trying to find more info on how it generates the music for a while. Like are they premade beats and that, or is it just making that shit up as it goes? Turns out he programmed the robot to know the basics of rhythm and that, what makes a good beat, timing, etc, but it’s basically just making that shit up.

The beats are - however - semi-pre-made. Just as the navigation is semi-pre-thought; you decide that it should not just drive into a wall (unless it is for playing it), but you do not decide weather it should turn left or right when facing the wall. That descission is up to how things are looking to the left / right, and where we just came from, and where we are trying to get, and what we are doing now as well (are we reversing, for instance).

Same way with the beats; There are rules to what is “good behaviour”, what makes a good beat. There are “examples”, and there are setup to make everything play in sync. There is input; how does it sound when sampling, and there is such things as speed, shuffle and combinations, that are put together based upon inputs made when we got to this particular place to drum.

So.. basically and in reality it is just completely random.. But I know “in my heart” that it is not; there are reasons - But I cannot predict what it will play.

I love this thing!