Hi- questions about desiging a new robot to help play trumpet.

OAGr

Hi, I'm a high school student who just started working with robotics. I have a friend who was recently paralyzed, and can only move his hands a little bit. He used to play trumpet, and can still blow, but has no way of holding the trumpet up and pressing the keys. Therefor, I want to create something that will press the keys for him at the slight movement of his hands (which won't be on the trumpet). Do any of you have any suggestions of what type of robotics kit to use, or what types of parts may work? I am really new to this and have little experience. Thank you.

Bean

How much movement does your friend have ?
Can he push buttons with his fingers ?

Bean.

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OAGr

Wow, thanks for the quick reply. He can push buttons with his fingers, but it takes him a while. I was thinking if we had it fixed up so that if his right hand moved a bit to the left it would press one key of the trumpet, his left hand another, and maybe one could move up as well for the third (the hand that is controlling 2 would move diagonally to press both). 2 Joysticks may work, but would have to be really sensitive, because to play trumpet he'd have to adjust the keys quickly but can't move his hands with much speed.

-Oz

D Faust

Solenoids for the movement of the trumpet?
How about an optical button? You could shine light diagnally at a set of 3 photoresitors and if your friends finger was covering the photoresistor (no force required) a stamp (or other processor) would send the signal to the solenoid to depress the trumpet thing. Do trumpets use partial depression or is it just up or down. It would take a little calibration to get it right if partial depression was the case.

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Skywalker49

Trumpets do not use partial depression. So it is on / off for the 3 cylinders. That makes it a little more easier.
What is important is that the position of the trumpet is somewhat flexible so that the "connection" between mouth
and the mouth-piece (embouchure) can be optimized by the trumpet player by means of moving his head / neck.

Ed

Mightor

Would it not be possible to use one of those data gloves?


I remember Nintendo had one years and years ago, here's what it looked like: www.vidgame.net/NINTENDO/powerglove.html. Perhaps you could modify something like that.

Gr,
Mightor

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Duffer

Three IR emmiter/detector pairs arranged in a block similar to the drawing below would permit your friend to mearly move his index, second and third fingers to break the beams between the emitter/detector pair corresponding to each valve on the trumpet. The block could be oriented in almost any direction that is comfortable for your friend and it need not be "open" as drawn below.·It could have finger "slots" in the block with the emitter/detector pairs on the sides of each slot. Visualize the drawing below as if you were looking down on a block with three·finger slots.·The finger movement (more of a curling motion) would be familiar if he played before his disability.

A simple wooden mock-up should be easy to construct to test the concept and the circuit/code to trigger the solenoids should be pretty simple.

EDIT: Replaced PDF with JPG image.

Good luck to you and your friend,

Steve

I did some more thinking and some experimentation with a wooden block with cut-outs. See Rev 2 below. You get much better tactile feedback on your fingertips when you break the beam of each "valve" pair of sensors with this setup. If you experiment with the cut-out width (open to closed distance), you could provide tactile feedback for both open and closed "valve" positions. I don't know how much grip strength your friend has, but the thumb hole makes it much easier to hold and it feels more secure in your hand. It kind of reminds you of "brass knuckles" when you have it in your hand.

The mock-up that I did was just wood. This could be made very light and compact by using something like expanded PVC or some other kind of easily machineable plastic material.

PS - I've seen posts from several people on this forum who are magicians with a CNC cutter and expanded PVC and the like. Steve


Post Edited (Duffer) : 8/25/2007 3:31:24 AM GMT

Humanoido

Parallax sells a flex sensor. Several of these could be rigged to a Basic Stamp 2 microcontroller as input. For output, range solenoids could depress the valves. Out of interest, the Toyota humanoid robot plays the trumpet. www.toyota.co.jp/en/special/robot/

humanoido

Skywalker49

Nice robot, "*Music is unavailable in accordance with copyright protection" Funny, isn't it?

ed

Humanoido

It's finally playing some musical selections you can hear.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5akbOKGSFM
You might want to browse around after this vid plays
as there's numerous variations and performances.

humanoido

OAGr

Wow that last robot was cool. Soon they will be challenging pro. Jazz players. I'll try to email the company for help with the hands. Thanks all