The robotic drumming prosthesis attaches to amputees, allowing this technology to be embedded into humans, using two drumsticks. The first stick is controlled both physically by the musicians’ arms and electronically using electromyography (EMG) muscle sensors. The other stick “listens” to the music being played and improvises.

View a video of the project here.

Publications

• Gopinath, D., and Weinberg, G. “A generative physical model approach for enhancing the stroke palette for robotic drummers,” Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Vol. 86, pp. 207–21. 2016.
• Bretan, M., Gopintah, D., Mullins, P., and Weinberg, G. “A Robotic Prosthesis for an Amputee Drummer,” Preprint; Arxiv (co.RO/1612.04391), 2016.
   

Press

• Tech Crunch. Play That Funky Music, Cyborg. March 5, 2014.
• NBC News. Robotic Drumming Prosthesis Gives Musician an Extra Hand. March 5, 2014.
• The New York Times. An Environmental Film Festival and High-Tech Music. Feb 24, 2014.