Three-armed robot leads German orchestra

A three-armed robot trained to imitate a human conductor has made its debut in the German city of Dresden, conducting music composed specifically to complement the device’s skills.

The robot, made up of three distinct arm-like structures carrying batons reminiscent of the lightsabers from “Star Wars,” led musicians from the Dresdner Sinfoniker Orchestra in two performances over the weekend.

The robot was trained to recognize beat time and indicate dynamics, with the different arms able to move independently of each other.

This ability was fully revealed in the performance of “Semiconductor’s Masterpiece”, a work by the composer and pianist Andreas Gundlach commissioned by the Dresdner Sinfoniker.

The robot was able to use its three arms to separately guide the three sections of the orchestra in a way that would not have been possible with a single human conductor.

Speaking at Sunday’s performance, Gundlach said the idea for the robot was inspired by scientists at the Technical University of Dresden who are developing “‘cobots,’ collaborative robots, which are not intended for replace human beings but to work with them.

It then took two years to develop and train the driving robot in collaboration with the Technical University.

Gundlach said the process of teaching the robot the movements needed to drive it “made me understand in a completely new way what a wonderful creation human beings are.”

He said patient work was needed to teach the machine “aesthetic arm movements that can be well understood by the orchestra.”

Two of the robot’s arms also guided the musicians in the premiere of Wieland Reissmann’s “#kreuzknoten,” another piece involving instruments played simultaneously at different tempos.

© 2024 AFP