I got rhythm, I got music...

March 26, 2008 7:54 AM

Yellow Drum Machine (google video), one of the robots that you can learn to build via Let's Make Robots (.com). This little guy finds a surface to tap a beat onto, then taps a beat on it. The fun starts at about 35 seconds in (via b3ta).
posted by krautland (31 comments total)

For Christmas please Santa!
posted by rongorongo at 8:00 AM on March 26, 2008

Now THIS is a robot! And a damned cool one! And cute! And what a great site!
posted by DU at 8:16 AM on March 26, 2008

Made from 100% pure awesome.
posted by iamabot at 8:27 AM on March 26, 2008

Not servos? That's a little bizarre for this application.

Some great resources on that site. Why is everything Picaxe? Just a random choice?

Oh and the belt drive kit reminds me of a question (that maybe I should put in AskMe): I harvested some stepper motors out of an inkjet printer. The steppers are perfect for a project I'm doing, but they have gears on the shafts. If it was a bare shaft, I could couple it right to the shaft of my application, but I can't get the damn gears off! There's no set screw. Do they weld these on or what?
posted by DU at 8:29 AM on March 26, 2008

This is fantastic. I would buy it. Or build it. I mean, I wouldn't build it, as my construction skills begin and end at cheesecake, but I'd get someone to help me build it. Ba-doompa-doompa-dum-ping! Ba-doompa-doompa-dum-ping! Shwee-shwee-shwee-shwee, ba-doompa-doompa-dum-ping!
posted by uncleozzy at 8:29 AM on March 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

WANT.
posted by chimaera at 8:55 AM on March 26, 2008

you know, the cutest thing for me was how the robot kind of grunted twice at the very top of the video. it's prolly just going over some rough patch but hey, it sounded like a little boar in anticipation of some action. which it got. with a vase.

I'll stop now.
posted by krautland at 8:59 AM on March 26, 2008

I WANT!!

Seriously, I want to build this, and 120 bucks in parts! I'm THERE. Just, I don't know anything about robots and stuff, so I have some reading to do...
posted by Eekacat at 9:02 AM on March 26, 2008

Answering myself: Picaxe vs Arduino

There's a lot of nitties there, but it seems to boil down to Picaxe having more hardware options and fewer software options (i.e. great for non-CS EEs) while Arduino is the opposite (great for non-EE programmers). Fair enough, that's exactly why I chose Arduino.
posted by DU at 9:03 AM on March 26, 2008

Gah, I came here to post this. So badass.
posted by ludwig_van at 9:13 AM on March 26, 2008

This is cool, but AAARGH, the words "Yellow Drum Machine" two posts down from the word "Beatles", AAAARGH.

We all live in a yellow drum machine, a yellow drum machine, a yellow drum machine...
posted by darksasami at 9:36 AM on March 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

Great blog. I'm working on an undergrad robotics problem at the moment and some of this is surprisingly helpful.
posted by nicolas léonard sadi carnot at 9:41 AM on March 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

First ceiling cat papercraft, now the ultimate cute little drumming robot?! It's Christmas on Mefi.
Best post of the day (so far. Competition is stiff around here!).
posted by misha at 9:58 AM on March 26, 2008

I really enjoyed how at about 3:25 it rolls into frame and, despite the fact that it's little sensors are flicking back and forth, it crashes into the glass with the red liquid in it, almost tipping it over.

It's a great design which would only be made better by the addition of some Mr Magoo styled glasses.
posted by quin at 10:07 AM on March 26, 2008 [3 favorites]

I'm going to form a band of these things, and perform on street corners. It's like "Stomp" got knocked up by "Short Circut" during a night of drunken debauchery.
posted by The Power Nap at 10:30 AM on March 26, 2008 [4 favorites]

I really like the idea of having one running underfoot all day long, pausing every so often to rock out on the kitchen floor or by the leg of the coffee table or whatever.
posted by chrominance at 10:33 AM on March 26, 2008 [4 favorites]

I want a composer robot: have it go around collecting sounds that just happen and sounds it can make by hitting things, and then let it sit in the corner at night and dream music to play for me in the morning when it's time to get up.
posted by pracowity at 11:27 AM on March 26, 2008 [4 favorites]

> I really like the idea of having one running underfoot all day long, pausing every so often to rock out on the kitchen floor or by the leg of the coffee table or whatever.

Roomba + Yellow Drum Machine. The world needs this, as of yesterday.
posted by ardgedee at 11:32 AM on March 26, 2008

if it was a bare shaft, I could couple it right to the shaft of my application, but I can't get the damn gears off! There's no set screw. Do they weld these on or what?

They're normally pressed on by machine. To get them off, you need to sit the gear on something (or really, two somethings, so there is a gap between them for the shaft and motor to hang through) that will take a pounding, then use a rod and hammer to punch the shaft out of the gear. (These mechanical stresses need to limited to the gear and to the shaft in the immediate vicinity of the gear, because the force required to remove the gear is usually more than enough force to destroy the motor, should the motor accidentally become involved in the process)
posted by -harlequin- at 12:08 PM on March 26, 2008 [2 favorites]

Yes! Yes! God, yes!
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 12:16 PM on March 26, 2008

(Thanks, harlequin! I thought that might be it, but I didn't want to ruin my only two steppers.)
posted by DU at 12:20 PM on March 26, 2008

The guide isn't quite step-by-step, so apparently I'd have a lot of reading to do. But, I wonder if it can rock certain beats. Even better if it can respond to voice commands to play certain beats. Like maybe I can fashion a cymbal out of something and have a roving robot ready to do a cymbal crash every time I crack a good joke.

Or, hell, if it can play the drum fill from Sepultura's cover of Symptom of the Universe, I'd be tickled friggin' pink.
posted by revmitcz at 12:49 PM on March 26, 2008

I'd like to see that guy team up with this guy.
posted by emelenjr at 1:18 PM on March 26, 2008

You could add some MIDI processing to their little robo brains, so they could speak music amonst themselves and other computers. Little robots running around thinking in Arpeggios. I'm kinda tearing up thinking about it, it's so beautiful...
posted by The Power Nap at 1:20 PM on March 26, 2008

Q: How many drummers does it take to change a light bulb?

A: None, they've got machines to do that now.
posted by sebastienbailard at 2:30 PM on March 26, 2008 [2 favorites]

A buddy of mine's had one of these for years...
posted by stenseng at 5:03 PM on March 26, 2008

If you read the how-to article you'll find some hidden features, like:

Also it can be used to detect a foot stumping on the floor or someone clapping, and so the robot can find the speed of this after four beats, and play along / fall in to your clapping or stumping.

And.. It can be used when there are kids playing with the robot; Signals "Record", the kids shout, and the robot then plays music / a beat with their shouting as a part of "the music" :)

posted by chrominance at 5:12 PM on March 26, 2008

That was delightful.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 6:04 PM on March 26, 2008

I always had a feeling the future would be funky.
posted by Freen at 8:52 PM on March 26, 2008

ehh, I was expecting something more....yellow.
posted by MikeKD at 12:24 AM on March 27, 2008

very very niffty! but can't help but think that some people have an awful lot of time on their hands.
posted by pkerr1975 at 11:15 AM on March 27, 2008