Close

9/30 - 10/6

A project log for Bot-thoven: A Robot Musician

Designing a Servo Motor Based Mallet System to Generate Musical Expression in Instrument Playing Robots

jason-pJason P. 10/04/2019 at 14:570 Comments

Plan

This week, I finished my Project Proposal and created a preliminary design for the servo-mallet system I will be using to conduct my project. 

Procedures

I looked into examples of xylophone-playing robots made by other individuals to see how they were able to attach a mallet to a servo. 

Progress

My project proposal is available here

The image above shows the proposed design of my xylophone-playing robot. The mallet will be attached to a long servo horn and fastened using a zip tie. I decided to vary the rotation degrees per second on the servo motor to achieve different dynamics for my xylophone robot. 

Problems

I will need to create prototypes of the servo-mallet system and test it on a xylophone key to see if the design functions and is stable. 

Following my proposal presentation, I received feedback that I should find outside sources of support who I could reach out to for advice on my project. I will need to look into possible researchers in the field of robotic instruments.

Discussions