Old robot learns new trick, becomes musician

Robotics

Here’s a fun thing to do with an older robot that you aren’t sure what to do with: turn it into a musical instrument! Using a motor to make music is nothing new, however this approach by LMR user RobotFreak is nice because you can try it without building any new hardware. This technique works because you can turn a motor on and off very quickly, causing it to act like a speaker.

4 thoughts on “Old robot learns new trick, becomes musician

  1. mermaldad says:

    Seeing the video suggests two possibilities:

    1. If you have two motors connected to two H-bridges, you could send signals to both to create more complex music.

    2. The sound is made by switching the motors forward and backward at high frequency. With a pwm, could you overlay this on a lower frequency signal so the robot could move around while it plays?

    1. Matt Mets says:

      Yeah, I think both of these might be possible! Hmm, I wonder if anyone is doing the second one in cheap toys to eliminate the need for a speaker? Err, has anyone patented that?

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