Piano playing robot

Abstract

One of the most familiar musical instrument is Piano, which uses the basic principles of sound, string, damping and vibration to produce sounds. Pianos were, and are, extremely popular instruments for private household ownership, especially among the middle and upper-class. When a key of a piano is hit, series of mechanism converts mechanical energy to sound energy. The beauty of this instrument is that is produces a particular sound when a specific key is pressed for a specific amount of time. The aim of this project is to build a robot which can play piano. It uses a simple DC motor which pulls the finger down and thus presses a key on the keyboard. The finger is then pulled up again with a help of an elastic string. The motors are controlled by a microcontroller which acts as the brain of the system, thus enabling the robot to play various tunes.