Like a robot, arm surgery

Drumming with three arms? Wearable robot helps you do it Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US have built a wearable robotic arm that allows drummers to play music with three arms. The "smart arm" is two feet long and can be mounted on a musician's arm, where it can respond to human gestures and the music they hear. For example, when a drummer hits a pedal cymbal, the robot arm hits a rhythm cymbal, and when the drummer changes to a snare drum, the robot arm changes to a tom-tom.　　The project, supported by the National Science Foundation and headed by Professor Gil Weinberg of the Georgia Institute of Technology, aims to go beyond the limits of what is possible for humans on their own. "If you add an intelligent, wearable robot to a human being, you can make more fine-tuned interactions based on the environment," he says. "This third hand, which can provide a very rich and more creative experience, allows a human musician to play a lot of drums at the same time, with a level of sophistication that has never been seen before. unprecedented."　　This robotic arm is very smart for a couple of reasons. First, it can determine how to play by listening to chamber music. It improvises according to the beat and rhythm; for example, if the musicians play slow, the robot arm will also play a slower beat; if the drummer speeds up, it will also speed up.　　　　Another intelligence is that it knows at all times what position it is in, where the drums are, and the near and far orientation of the human drummer. When the robot arm approaches the instrument, it uses built-in sensors to sense the distance away. The motor then ensures that the drumstick is parallel to the surface of the drum, allowing the drumstick to be raised, lowered or twisted and actually touch the surface of the drum or cymbal. The robotic arm moves naturally with intuitive gestures because it is programmed with "human motion capture technology".　　Professor Weinberg's team of students, with backgrounds in music, engineering, computational science and physics, developed the smart arm after creating a prosthetic arm for an Atlanta drummer. That previous device had two drumsticks, one of which had the robotic arm's own mind. That prosthetic arm allowed the drummer, who lost an arm in a car accident, to continue to pursue his musical dreams, while also making him the fastest drummer in the world. This success inspired Prof. Weinberg to create a "third arm" robot that could be worn by anyone and become a "cyborg" drummer.　　Prof. Weinberg says, "It's a very different feeling when you take a machine and make it part of your body, as opposed to working with a regular robot. The robot arm learns how your body moves and augments and completes your movements. It becomes part of you."　　The next step for their team is to get brain activity linked to the movement of the arm, and they've already begun experimenting with brainwave head rings to detect patterns of brain activity in drummers. They hope to recognize patterns so that later, when a musician simply thinks of changing beats or instruments, they can get the robot arm to respond accordingly.　　"Imagine if doctors could also use a third arm to manipulate tools, assist or even participate in surgical procedures; engineers and technicians, could use an extra hand to help with repairs and experiments!" Prof. Weinberg said, "Music performance is based on timely and accurate movement. So the concept of human function enhancement and a third arm with a musical robot arm is a perfect intermediary. "