Bertsobot: The first minstrel robot

Abstract

We describe a robot capable of composing and playing traditional Basque impromptu verses - bertsoak. The system, called Bertsobot, is able to construct improvised verses according to given constraints on rhyme and meter, and to perform it in public. Towards this end, several tools and applications have been developed and integrated in Bertsobot, including: speech-based communication system, text applications for verse generation, and robot behaviours to interact with the environment in a public performance. We describe the tools and processes behind our approach, present some early experimental results and illustrative verses, and finally, remark the conclusions and future steps.