On Saturday 19th November, the Robot Orchestra played live at the Halle headquarters in St Peter’s Church.
This performance was special, as everyone there had contributed to robot or volunteered their time to help set up and make the robotic conductor, Graphene, work. Graphene is a robot designed by Siemens to look like a regular, human conductor.
The robots played four pieces of music. The first was specially composed by Steve Pickett for the robots and was entitled “Fanfare, the Robots are coming”
Two of the robot instruments were Strike A Chord and Brickbot. Strike A Chord is made from three chime bars fixed to a wooden frame. Servos with beaters attached to them hit the bars to make one solid note – a C Major chord – hence the name. Brickbot has a Lego frame and concealed inside this is something like an electric piano. The piano is hit by a plastic bar, moved by a motor. Both robots are programmed using a Crumble Controller.
By Daniel Smallwood
This is the musical score:
Think Like An Engineer 