Dr-squiggles

Have you ever wanted your own cute and friendly robot that you can play music with? Dr. Squiggles is just that, a musical drumming robot that plays rhythms by tapping on whatever surface you set it on. Moreover, if you tap rhythms, it can listen to you through its microphone, synchronize to your beat, imitate you, or learn to play rhythms that are similar but not identical to yours!

The Dr. Squiggles robots are designed and built by RITMO's postdoctoral researcher Michael Krzyzaniak.

Want to build one yourself? The complete instructions are available in a Make Magazine article. The construction phase begins with laser cutting the plywood parts.

This is how the inside of a Dr. Squiggles robot looks like. The electronics are built into the core of the construction, and the tapping actuators are attached to each of the "feet".

The public debut of Dr. Squiggles was during the UiO:Life Science conference in February 2020. There it featured as the solution of a puzzle that visitors would solve during the event.

During the UiO:Life Science event, people could tap on a table. Dr. Squiggles would respond musically to people's interaction.

Dr. Squiggles was also exhibited during the International Conference on Live Interfaces in Trondheim in March 2020. This time people could interact with the robot using a muscle armband. Here PhD fellow Cagri Erdem plays with the robot.

Three Dr. Squiggles robots teamed up with six of RITMO's self-playing guitars during an online installation at the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression.

Research assistant Habibur Rahman helps with hanging the guitars next to the Dr. Squiggles robots. The guitars listened to the sounds of the robots and responded sonically.

The installation was originally planned to be physically present at the conference. Due to corona restrictions, the installation was moved online. A live stream was shown 24/7 for a week, and people could interact with the robots through a web interface.