Just like humans, this robot can hear music and play it after just two minutes of self-practice
A robot named the Musician Hand has demonstrated the ability to hear and play music after just two minutes of self-practice. Developed at the University of Southern California, this robot uses a technique called 'motor babbling' to learn how to produce sounds by pressing piano keys. The project was led by doctoral candidate Hesam Azadjou under the guidance of Professor Francisco Valero-Cuevas.
- ▪The Musician Hand can play back melodies without any prior training or sheet music.
- ▪It was designed to mimic the human hand's movement through tendons and motors.
- ▪The robot learned to play music through an exploratory process similar to how humans learn to control their limbs.
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In a neuro-robotics lab at the University of Southern California, a small mechanical hand heard a melody for the first time and played it back in a single attempt, without any sheet music, pre-loaded scores, or weeks of supervised training and practice (via USC Viterbi). The system is called the Musician Hand. It has four fingers, each moved by a tendon connected to a small electric motor, mirroring how muscles actually pull tendons in a human hand. It was built by doctoral candidate Hesam Azadjou under the direction of Professor Francisco Valero-Cuevas. WIRobotics How did the robot actually learn? Through a technique called “motor babbling,” the exploratory trial-and-error process by which humans learn to control their limbs.
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