Autonomous robotics meets rhythm research
Dr. Squiggles, the RITMO-designed robot, listens for tapping produced by humans or other musical robots and attempts to play along and improvise its own rhythms based on what it hears.
In this project, we are building a swarm of Dr. Squiggles robots. Each robot has a powerful onboard computer and is therefore fully autonomous, enabling the swarm to be completely decentralized. The robots are considered as:
- An interactive digital artwork
- A platform that will be used to study several of our key research questions
- A product that musical hobbyists might eventually have in their home, that would help them improve their musical skills
Flexible and customisable robotics
The Dr Squiggles platform is open, and by customizing the software and setup we can use it in multiple settings:
- Explore human-robot interaction – what makes robots fun and engaging?
- Explore how interactive robots can help people gain music-related skills.
- To use an analysis-by-synthesis method to understand how rhythm works in human and animal brains.
- Explore dynamics in a collective setting, with robots only or a mix of robots and humans.
- Explore swarm behaviour – how can a large number of autonomous robots collaborate on a complex shared task like playing music together?
Images and Video
