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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Designing robots to perform tasks accurately and skillfully is an important and heavily emphasized topic at Georgia Tech. Getting robotic systems to perform even simple tasks can sometimes be difficult for students to achieve. But getting a robot to play and improvise music, a medium where missing a single note can be the line between a successful project and going back to the drawing board? This a challenge that researchers in the field of Robotic Musicianship face every day.
The May issue of Communications of the ACM features a paper written by Music Technology Ph.D student Mason Bretan delving into the topic. Titled "A Survey of Robotic Musicianship", Bretan discusses many of the methodologies and challenges that come with designing robotic systems for musical interactivity. The main topics in the paper include Sound Production and Design, Musical Intelligence, and Embodiment. He also features multiple projects of research from both Georgia Tech's Center for Music Technology and other institutions to offer a wider view of the disciplines used to create interactive musical robots.
But despite all of the challenges and troubleshooting that he and his colleagues face every day as they create and perfect new projects, it comes with the territory, according to Bretan. "There's a lot of challenges within Robotic Musicianship that touch on timing, social interaction, the mechanical dexterity... all of these different things apply to robotics in general," Bretan says.
To watch the video, click here.
To read the article, click here.
