Build and Program Sound-Making Arduino Robots
Let Your Robots Talk! (and beep, and sing, and ...)
Ever notice how the robots in movies like to make noise? Sound helps them to connect with their human counterparts -- cheery advise, warnings, whatever. Audible feedback makes them more interesting. Who can forget the tweeps and braaps of R2-D2, the incessant warnings to Will Robinson by the Robot in Lost in Space, or the nasal-sounding jabberings of those countless Daleks?
The Sounding Off series of articles in SERVO Magazine help you to build fun Arduino-based robots that talk, sing, make noises, and otherwise entertain through the power of sound. So far we're up to Part 3, with more to come!
Downloadable Program Code
Here's where you can get the Arduino sketches for all the installments of the Sounding Off article series.
Right click on a link to save the file to your computer. Unzip the sketch and open in the Arduino IDE. Important! All sketches are designed for Arduino 1.0 IDE.
- Prequel - Giving Your Robot Ears ... Command your robot using sound, music, and voice
- Part 1 - Adding Sound Making to Your Arduino Robot
- Part 2 - Build a MIDI Music-Controlled Arduino Tunebot
- Part 2, MP3 Player Shield Version - Version of the Part 2 sketches, revised for the SparkFun MP3 Player Shield (it uses different pins than the MIDI-only shield)
- Part 3 - Building an MP3 Sound-Making Robot
- Part 4 - To come, not yet published
Articles on Sound Making
The Tunebot MIDI robot produces an orchestra of sound with its Arduino-powered MIDI synthesizer.
An 8-cell infrared array acts as a "keyboard" for not only making music, but controlling the action of the robot.
For more details on the Tunebot, including how to build and program it, see the April 2012 issue of SERVO Magazine for Part 2 of the Sounding Off series.