Robot DJs!
Astroboy at the decks this isn’t! Robot Lab [german] have created 5 foot (that’s 1.5 metres for you metric folk) robotic arms, out of Kuka industrial robots, that play records. Dubbed Juke Bots [german], two the large arms (which don’t look much unlike the gadgets I that used to play with in ‘Technology’ class in High School) will play records on very slightly modified Technics 1200 turntables. Unfortunately, it’s nothing spectacular.
When playing a track, a Juke Bot will pick up a record from a specially made holder (no flight cases here) and slide the vinyl under the tonearm of the turntable, bringing the record up to the needle, bypassing the platter completely. The Juke Bots are relatively limited with what they can do technique-wise, but they can make sound, that’s for sure! I’m sure coupled with a piece of software or two, you could teach these over-sized Science Fair projects to beat match, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
The Juke Bots were featured at this year’s
DJs fear not! Juke Bots have a long way to go before they replace you in the club, but for those of you who are really interested, you can view a movie and a butt-load of pictures on Robot Lab’s website.
