Robots
Robotic Musicians are robots that can listen, understand, and respond to humans in a surprising and inspiring manner. Robotic Musicians utilize perceptual AI to understand music like humans do. They use generative AI to create, respond, and improvise, using algorithms and mechanical abilities that are humanly impossible. Following the motto "Listen Like a Human, Play Like a Machine," Robotic Musicians bear the promise of pushing musical outcomes and experiences to uncharted domains.
Shimon is a robotic marimba player and a singer-songwriter who can listen to, understand, and generate music and lyrics. Shimon is designed to compose, improvise, accompany, collaborate, and inspire his human counterparts. The award winning robot has performed in dozens of concerts around the world.
A robotic violin player Hatthani is designed to understand and play Carnatic music - a music form that is popular in southern India. The project aims to strengthen diversity in musical AI research by exploring a non-western and less studied musical genre. Hathaani explores how Robotic Musicianship can capture the nuanced and emotional "soul" of a highly qualitative musical tradition.
The GuitarBot is a robotic musician that is designed to play an acoustic guitar in a rich and expressive manner. The robot can play with a wide dynamic range, millisecond-level note generation, featuring a variety of playing techniques.
Shimi is a robotic musical companion that analyzes music and reacts to it with a variety of dance gestures. The technology for Shimi was licensed to a startup company and presented in venues such as the Kennedy Art Center and TechCrunch Disrupt. Shimi has since been redesigned to allow people who are deaf and hard of hearing to experience and enjoy music in a tactile and visual manner.
Haile is the first perceptual and improvisatory robotic percussionist designed to support expressive collaborations with human musicians. Playing a Native American powwow drum, Haile listens, interprets, and improvises by transforming and modifying human input. Haile has been presented in venues such as SIGGRAPH, London Science Museum, and the Atlanta International Airport.
