A three-armed robot trained to mimic a human orchestra conductor has made its debut in the German city of Dresden, directing music composed specially to complement the device’s skills.
The robot, consisting of three separate arm-like structures carrying batons reminiscent of “Star Wars” light sabres, conducted musicians from the Dresdner Sinfoniker orchestra in two performances over the weekend.
The robot was trained to recognise beat time and indicate dynamics, with the different arms able to move independently of each other.
This ability came into its own in the performance of “Semiconductor’s Masterpiece,” a work by composer and pianist Andreas Gundlach commissioned by the Dresdner Sinfoniker.
The robot was able to use its three arms to guide the three sections of the orchestra separately 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 Dresden’s Technical University who develop “ ‘cobots’ — collaborative robots, which aren’t meant to replace human beings but to work with them.”
It then took two years to develop and train the conductor robot in collaboration with the Technical University.
Gundlach said the process of teaching the robot the movements needed for conducting “made clear to me in a totally new way what a wonderful creation a human being is.”
He said patient work was needed to teach the machine “aesthetic arm movements which can be picked up well by the orchestra.”