Musical Robots

Robots performing music...a perplexing concept, entertaining to some and creepy to others. Here I've gathered together several of the most interesting, or bizarre, musical robots...

This is Compressorhead, an all robot rock band equipped with a four armed drummer, a 78 fingered guitarist, and a red eyed bass.

According to the band's webpage "Compressorhead is the worlds heaviest metal band." 

They can be seen live in 2013 at Australia’s 'Big Day Out' music festival.

The Waseda Flutist Robot flawlessly plays Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Flight of the Bumblebee".

Robot Quadrotors Perform James Bond Theme.

Intel takes a unique spin on robotic music with their music player known as: "Intel's Industrial Control in Concert." Inspired by Animusic's whimsical 3D musical animation, the whole project took ninety days to go from concept to reality. 

But the idea of robots performing music isn't new, it dates even as far back as the 1800's where intricate gears and windup motors powered the mystical automatons which bemused generations of wide eyed children...and to this day send chills up my spine...

This is an automaton made for Marie Antoinette in around 1780, it is made from her clothing and hair. It was created by a German watchmaker, Peter Kintzing, and cabinetmaker Queen David Roentgen. The automaton is named "La Joueuse de Tympanon", or "The Dulcimer Player". She can play eight different songs by changing the disc beneath her dress. After the revolution, she was badly damaged, but repaired in the 1800’s and now resides in a museum in France.