AUTONOMOUS PIANO PLAYING ROBOT
So i just watched westworld…
And I really wanted to make something cool and senior design was coming up so what did I do? Built a piano playing robot that plays the Westworld theme of course (cause of that intro scene!). I worked together with 7 other Mechanical Engineering major seniors to put this fun project together.
I handled a bunch of the electronics integration (did all the soldering and was smelling 60/40 flux fumes for days) and worked with my friend Andrew Namgoong on programming the Arduino Mega in C.
cad & mechanical design
The fingers are powered by servo motors are are mounted onto 3D printed baseplates which translate along linear rods using linear bearings. The baseplates themselves are moved using a double belt-drive system powered by two DC motors. The motor mounts were custom-designed and 3D printed, and the linear rods are constrained using shaft collars.
electrical & programming
The servos are controlled using the Arduino Servo library, and the DC motors are controlled using a PID control algorithm implemented onto the Arduino Mega. The PID control algorithm takes input from the encoders on the DC motors, and translates encoder steps into piano key counts. Three limit switches are implemented for calibration and emergency stops, and are programmed to stop the Arduino processor when triggered.
