The goal of this project was to create a robotic drumming system which could play a variety of percussive instruments, produce basic and complex strikes, and demonstrate aural and visual expressivity. In order to accomplish this a robotic arm was designed to approximate a human arm, with a variable impedance actuator (VIA) utilized at the wrist. The VIA can be tuned to simulate the dynamics of a drum roll. Due to circumstances resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the team produced simulations to verify the design of the robot. Despite the arm being unable to fully reproduce the range of human playing ability, this simulation demonstrated the capability of the robotic arm to replicate, with moderate fidelity, the aural and visual characteristics of human players.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Grotz, Jordan T.
• Yeung, Pheobe
• Bisson, Matthew C.
• Chintada, Nikhil

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• 17221
• E-project-040621-155247

Keyword

• Musical Robotics
• Robotics
• Percussion
• Variable Impedance Actuators

Advisor

• Stafford, Kenneth A.
• Barton, Scott D
• Mughal, Maqsood Ali

Year

• 2021

Sponsor

• Maxon Motors

Date created

• 2021-04-06

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Robotics Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright

Last modified

• 2021-05-03