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Robotic arm gives amputee drummer better beats

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Georgia Tech's Gil Weinberg has made music-playing robots in the past. Now he's tapped that technology to help a musician likely become the world's first drumming "cyborg."

One drumstick is controlled by muscle movement, the other "listens" and plays on its own.

When drummer Jason Barnes lost his lower right arm to electrocution two years ago, his future as a musician didn't look too promising. But thanks to a new robotic arm invented by Professor Gil Weinberg, founding director of the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, he may soon be the envy of the drumming world.

That's because the new mechanical arm effectively gives Barnes the ability to use three different drumsticks while playing his kit. He holds the first in his left hand, as always. The other two are held by the robotic arm attached to Barnes' right bicep. One of those sticks is controlled by the up-and-down motion of Barnes' arm, as well as electrical impulses from his body measured by electromyography muscle sensors.

The other stick however, analyzes the rhythm being played and uses a built-in motor to improvise on its own, adding a dimension to drumming that's heretofore not seen on any stage we know of.

"The second drumstick has a mind of its own," Weinberg said in a statement. "The drummer essentially becomes a cyborg. It's interesting to see him playing and improvising with part of his arm that he doesn't totally control."

Barnes finds it more than interesting. "I'll bet a lot of metal drummers might be jealous of what I can do now," he said. "Speed is good. Faster is always better," he said, referring to the fact that the autonomous stick can move more quickly than humanly possible.

The drumming arm is an extension of Weinberg's previous work; among other thing, he has created one robot that could play the drums and one that could play the marimba. Both robots could jam with human counterparts thanks to programmed algorithms. The autonomous third stick uses similar technology to "listen" to what's being played and add its own appropriate track. If the drummer doesn't want to hear the extra stick, he can simply rotate his arm so it doesn't strike the drum.

I'll bet a lot of metal drummers might be jealous of what I can do now. Speed is good. Faster is always better. --Jason Barnes, drummer

Beyond making music, Weinberg sees applications for his technology in outer space or the operating room, where a third arm could help astronauts or surgeons orchestrate complex operations.

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Robotic arm gives amputee drummer better beats

Robot prosthesis transforms amputee drummer into 'cyborg' beat machine

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Jason Barnes from Atlanta lost his right arm below the elbow two years ago With help of Prof Weinberg, he created a robotic arm that uses 2 drumsticks The first stick is controlled using electrical signals in his upper arm muscles Other stick listens to the music being played and improvises its own beat 'Metal drummers might be jealous of what I can do now, said Mr Barnes

By Ellie Zolfagharifard

PUBLISHED: 14:28 EST, 6 March 2014 | UPDATED: 14:40 EST, 6 March 2014

A drummer who lost his arm in a freak accident now has a second chance of achieving his dream after being transformed into a cyborg musician.

Jason Barnes lost his right arm below the elbow two years ago after receiving an electric shock while cleaning a vent hood in a restaurant.

Determined to carry on drumming, the student from Atlanta built his own prosthetic device using a brace and some springs that attached to his arm.

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Jason Barnes, a drummer who lost his right arm in a freak accident, says he now has a chance of achieving his dream after being transformed into a 'cyborg' musician

The prosthesis uses a technique called electromyography to pick up on electrical signals in the upper arm muscles.

By tensing his biceps, Mr Barnes controls a motor that changes how quick the prosthetic arm moves and how tightly it grips the drumstick.

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Robot prosthesis transforms amputee drummer into 'cyborg' beat machine

Cyborg Drumming Arm Makes Amputee Into Superhuman Musician

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Gil Weinberg at Georgia Tech designs robots that make music. Not robots that play music, but robots that can actually create music, creatively improvising new melodies based on analysis of existing ones, allowing them to have jam sessions either by themselves, or with human musicians. Weinberg's newest project also involves musical robots collaborating with musical humans, except in a much more direct way, with the design of a cybernetic upgrade that gives a drummer who's missing an arm a robotic arm with a musical mind of its own.

Photo: Georgia Tech

Jason Barnes is a human drummer who lost his right arm just below the elbow a few years ago. To keep drumming, he built his own prosthetic, but it didn't provide him with the same level of control as a wrist and fingers would have. Weinberg was able to develop a more advanced prosthetic that is controlled physically by the Jasons' arm, as well as electronically using electromyography (EMG) muscle sensors in his upper arm, allowing him to adjust the prosthetic's grip on the stick to control how much it rebounds.

So that's cool, but what's really cool is that Weinberg took things a step farther, and gave the prosthetic drumming arm a second stick. And a brain.

That second stick literally has a mind of its own: it listens to the music that Jason is playing, and then improvises an accompaniment to play along with him. Jason can't control the second stick directly, but he can pull it away from the drum when he wants to play on his own. What's fascinating, though, is that the second stick allows Jason to do stuff that humans can't do. He can play faster, with a more stable beat, than any human can, because he's part robot.

Eventually, Weinberg wants to integrate this arm directly into Jason's brain so that it'll be able to predict when he wants to hit the drum, and then make sure that it activates to nail the beat at that exact moment. And beyond music, Weinberg envisions an even crazier future:

Weinberg says such robotic synchronization technology could potentially be used in the future by fully abled humans to control an embedded, mechanical third arm during time-sensitive operations. For example, Weinbergs anticipation algorithms could be used to help astronauts or surgeons perform complex, physical tasks in synchronization with robotic devices.

A robotic third arm? Yes, sign me up. I definitely need it to improve my ski boxing.

[ Georgia Tech ]

IEEE Spectrum's award-winning robotics blog, featuring news, articles, and videos on robots, humanoids, automation, artificial intelligence, and more. Contact us:e.guizzo@ieee.org

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Cyborg Drumming Arm Makes Amputee Into Superhuman Musician


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