The Kunitachi College of Music in Tachikawa, Tokyo, and the University of Tokyo have launched a unique research project to determine whether a humanoid robot can conduct an orchestra and elicit a performance with artistic expression.
The robot conductor has been paired with a student orchestra in a study of the communication that takes place between a conductor and the performers, and the significance of the conductor's role.
Researchers from both universities held a press conference at the college on Saturday.
The robot being used in the study is Alter 3, which was developed last January by the University of Tokyo and Osaka University. The robot is equipped with artificial intelligence, cameras for eyes and a program that moves its body spontaneously by picking up human movements.
The primary goal of the study is to determine whether robots can execute autonomous commands and gestures to create emotional performances for humans. The study is expected to last until March 2022.
The college will introduce a special course on conducting by Alter 3 in April, and has been carrying out experiments to increase the robot's repertoire of songs it can conduct and other areas. The study is tracking its growth process.
"Unlike ordinary robots, [Alter 3's] movements change by interacting with humans. The performers were initially skeptical but have gradually been getting along better," Prof. Takashi Ikegami of the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, who was involved in developing Alter 3, said at the press conference.
"The role of the performer is to understand the intentions of the conductor. Alter 3 could change the conductor's reason for existing and the future of music," said Yasuaki Itakura, who is a guest professor at the college.
At a studio at the college on Saturday, Alter 3 conducted an orchestra of 34 students by moving its hands slowly and shaking its body in broad strokes.
According to a third-year student who is the orchestra's concert master and had practiced with the robot for three days, "Human conductors raise the tempo when they get excited or worked up, but Alter's tempo is precise and stays the same."
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