A robot conducted its orchestra this weekend in Dresden, Germany. Thanks to its three separate articulated arms, each carrying drumsticks, it conducted musicians, very human for their part, during two performances of the Dresden Symphony Orchestra.
The robot was able to give a glimpse of its capabilities by performing “Semiconductor’s Masterpiece,” a work by German composer and pianist Andreas Gundlach, which was commissioned by the orchestra.
He was trained to recognize beat time and indicate dynamics, with the different arms able to move independently of each other. He was thus able to conduct the three parts of the orchestra separately, which would not have been possible with a single human conductor.
It took two years to develop and train the robot conductor in collaboration with the university.
The idea for the conductor robot was inspired by scientists at the Technical University of Dresden who are developing “cobots, collaborative robots that are not intended to replace human beings but to work with them”, explained Andreas Gundlach.
The process required to teach the machine the movements to conduct an orchestra “made it understand in a completely new way what a wonderful creation human beings are.” 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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