Flutist Robot, an Environment to Experiment with Flute Acoustics

Abstract

Recent studies on flute-like instruments have raised interest in creating an environment to precisely control and measure the strategies used by flutists while controlling their instruments. A robotic setup is proposed. Capable of independently controlling the three parameters that are crucial to producing a musical sound from the instrument: (1) the length of the air jet, (2) its angle into the flute, (3) the jet’s offset with respect to the labium. It also allows for precise control of the jet speed and the trajectories for every parameter. A custom-designed artificial mouth can move around a fixed flute by a three-axis mechanism operated with stepper motors. The air jet velocity is controlled with a mass flow controller connected to an air compressor. Another robotic mechanism is proposed to emulate the fingerings acting on the keys, creating a versatile testbed to study the musician’s control dynamically. Both, the details of the mechanical design and the future possibilities of the robot will be discussed. We strongly believe that the robot will let us validate many aspects of our knowledge of flute acoustics, understand the details of the instrument design and improve our understanding of the complex relationship between the flutist and its instrument.