Malaysian students win international acclaim
MELBOURNE: Four Malaysian students have won international acclaim when their robotic violin player, RoboFiddler, came second in the inaugural ARTEMIS Orchestra Contest in Berlin. They are Joshua Chia, from Sabah, Lee Chin Hooi (Ipoh), Hong Boon Yao (Kuala Lumpur) and Beinyg Lim. They are all final-year mechatronics engineering students at the University of Adelaide. Sponsored by NICTA, one of Australia’s leading information technology and communications research institute, the students were flown to Berlin to demonstrate their invention and receive their award. Beinyg Lim was unable to make the trip.
The contest is based on long-standing European traditions in music and challenges participants to create devices that play real musical instruments with the help of various embedded technologies. “NICTA is thrilled with the result, especially given that the competition attracted entries from leading embedded systems teams across Europe. “I think they were the crowd favourite,” NICTA chief executive Dr David Skellern said in a statement.
The RoboFiddler system links a conventional laptop computer to a micro controller that controls both the robotic bow arm and a series of six metal “fingers” that allow 28 notes to be played across the four strings. Tunes played by the RoboFiddler can be entered on a host computer and downloaded to the microcontroller-based robot.
The central controller communicates with the host, downloading whichever note needs to be played next. It then relays this information to the fingering controller, carefully coordinating all required motions such as fingering, bowing and tilting the main arm. “It is a complex system because the bow needs to be told not only which string to play, but at what angle and speed to play to ensure a clean sound.
“The result is not up to orchestra standard, but it is an impressive piece of engineering,” University of Adelaide Head of the School of Mechanical Engineering Prof Colin Hansen said.
In Berlin, the RoboFiddler performed two pieces during the ARTEMIS competition. The traditional piece Soldier’s Joy and the first part of Book 1 of German composer Hans Sitt’s 100 Etudes, Op. 32.
These pieces were in the set specified by the competition organisers. The RoboFiddler team received a trophy and 9,000 Euro prize. The winner of the ARTEMIS Orchestra competition was a team from Germany which demonstrated a recorder player with timing that followed a conductor as well as a piano player.
Source : BERNAMA
The contest is based on long-standing European traditions in music and challenges participants to create devices that play real musical instruments with the help of various embedded technologies. “NICTA is thrilled with the result, especially given that the competition attracted entries from leading embedded systems teams across Europe. “I think they were the crowd favourite,” NICTA chief executive Dr David Skellern said in a statement.
The RoboFiddler system links a conventional laptop computer to a micro controller that controls both the robotic bow arm and a series of six metal “fingers” that allow 28 notes to be played across the four strings. Tunes played by the RoboFiddler can be entered on a host computer and downloaded to the microcontroller-based robot.
The central controller communicates with the host, downloading whichever note needs to be played next. It then relays this information to the fingering controller, carefully coordinating all required motions such as fingering, bowing and tilting the main arm. “It is a complex system because the bow needs to be told not only which string to play, but at what angle and speed to play to ensure a clean sound.
“The result is not up to orchestra standard, but it is an impressive piece of engineering,” University of Adelaide Head of the School of Mechanical Engineering Prof Colin Hansen said.
In Berlin, the RoboFiddler performed two pieces during the ARTEMIS competition. The traditional piece Soldier’s Joy and the first part of Book 1 of German composer Hans Sitt’s 100 Etudes, Op. 32.
These pieces were in the set specified by the competition organisers. The RoboFiddler team received a trophy and 9,000 Euro prize. The winner of the ARTEMIS Orchestra competition was a team from Germany which demonstrated a recorder player with timing that followed a conductor as well as a piano player.
Source : BERNAMA
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