Automatic violin player

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to build an automatic violin player. The method is to study the violin playing skill, and to develop the automatic mechanism. This research is an extension work of the previous violin robot. The new robot consists of two mechanical systems. The first system is the bowing mechanism, which is able to control the bowing velocity and position. The second system is the violin control mechanism. This system can rotate the violin to a specific angle to coordinate with the string-changing movement of the bow. It also possesses a fingering device, which is able to press on several fixed positions in correspondence with the notes of the music. The automatic violin player utilizes a PC-based controller, and is able to play many famous songs.