Whirly Tunes
projects > wpi-whirly-tunesProject Type
Robot
My Roles
Programming Lead
Team Size
4
Timeline
Oct 2023 - Dec 2023
Description
For my Humanities Practicum at WPI, I elected to take a class called Musical Robotics. The goal of the class was to develop an innovative musical robot, from theory to implementation, in just seven weeks.
Based on a children’s toy from the 80s, the Whirly Tune is a customizable ensemble of corrugated tubes mounted to motors that each produce a unique pitch when spun. Controlled by three separate Raspberry Pi Picos, our design is highly modular and customizable. With a timbre that is both eerie and ethereal Whirly Tune has the potential to be the perfect accompaniment to many performances.
Whirly Tunes is controlled by a serial connection to Ableton via a patch written in Max MSP. This means it can easily perform MIDI pieces or be played in real time via a MIDI keyboard.