A three-armed robot designed to mimic a human conductor made its debut this weekend at the Dresden Symphony Orchestra in Germany. He conducted the musicians during two pieces, including a work composed especially for the machine.
The robot, three separate articulated arms, each carrying wands evoking the lightsabers of the film “Star Wars”, conducted musicians, very human for their part, during two performances of the Dresden Symphony Orchestra, in the East Germany, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the ensemble.
The robot was trained to recognize beat time and indicate dynamics, with the different arms able to move independently of each other.
He was able to give a glimpse of his abilities by performing “Semiconductor’s Masterpiece”, a work by German composer and pianist Andreas Gundlach, which was commissioned by the orchestra.
“Collaborative robots”
The robot used its three arms to separately guide the three parts of the orchestra, which would not have been possible with a single human conductor.
Speaking at Sunday’s performance, Andreas Gundlach said the idea for the robot was inspired by scientists at the Technical University of Dresden who are developing “cobots,” “collaborative robots that are not intended for replace human beings, but to work with them.
It then took two years to develop and train the robot conductor in collaboration with the University.
Long-term work
According to the composer, the process required to teach the machine the movements to conduct an orchestra “made me understand in a completely new way what a wonderful creation the human being is.”
He spoke of the patient work that had to be done to instill in the machine “aesthetic movements of the arms which can be well captured 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.
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