Overview
The Waseda Flutist is a robot that can play the flute just like a human can. It has lungs, a mouth, and a tongue that are closely modeled on human organs, and it's technically proficient, albeit robotic. The robot performs a duet with a professional flutist. The Waseda Flutist was created by Atsuo Takanishi, Jorge Solis, and colleagues at Waseda University, in Tokyo. The Flutist robot is essentially made up of two acrylic cylinders and bellows for the lungs, a vibrato mechanism to imitate human vocal cords, an artificial tongue and lips made of a thermoplastic rubber called Septon, two CCD cameras for the eyes, and flexible arms and fingers that can open and close. Together, these 'organs' have 41 degrees of freedom and are driven by complex mechanical systems of motorized levers and pulleys under the control of actuators and a computer.
Key facts
- Weight
- 150 kg
Detailed specifications
Motion & kinematics4
- Hand Dof
- 19
- Dof Total
- 32
- Dof Per Arm
- 7
- Dof Per Hand
- 12
Sensors1
- Sensor Suite
- imu, ccd_camera
Other9
- Height Mm
- 1700
- Applications
- education
- Model Variants
- WF-1, WF-2, WF-3RIX, WF-4, WF-4RIV, WF-4RV
- Company Country
- JP
- Deployment Notes
- Research conducted at the Humanoid Robotics Institute, Waseda University.
- Industries Served
- education, music
- Programming Interface
- proprietary_app
- Additional Information
- - Designed for emotional interaction in musical performances. - Utilizes 32-DOFs to replicate human motor control in saxophone playing. - Features advanced mechanisms for lip motion, oral cavity pressure, and tongue control to manipulate sound production. - Integrates MIDI system for performance synchronization with human musicians. - Developed in collaboration with Humanoid Robotics Institute at Waseda University. - Benefited from software contributions by SolidWorks Japan K.K. and supported by Toyota Motor Corporation.
- Deployment Environment
- indoor
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