Fun topic - Communicating robot status with music (sound)

Posted by robotguy@gmail.com on October 4, 2005, 5:34 pm

Hey all,

I have just finished coding the ability to play asynchronous music on
my robot, and was considering having it communicate it's internal state
to the user by playing different songs. Here is the list that I have
come up with so far:
1. Happy
"If you're happy and you know it"
2. Sad
"Nobody knows the trouble I've seen"
3. Afraid
"Whistle a happy tune"
4. Bored - triggered by lack of changes in sensor readings
"I'm bringing Home a baby bumblebee"
"Theme from Jeopardy"
5. Tired - triggered by low light levels at CDS cell
"Rockabye Baby"
Brahms Lullaby
6. Hungry - triggered by low battery
"My Bologna has a first name..."
"Food, Glorious food"

Anyone have any other ideas for states or songs that might be cute,
funny or informative?

P.S. If anyone is interested in non-blocking function timers or
asynchronous music in AVRGCC, let me know and I'll post the code.

Robotguy

Posted by Padu on October 4, 2005, 6:11 pm

> Hey all,
> I have just finished coding the ability to play asynchronous music on
> my robot, and was considering having it communicate it's internal state
> to the user by playing different songs. Here is the list that I have
> come up with so far:
> 1. Happy
> "If you're happy and you know it"
> 2. Sad
> "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen"
> 3. Afraid
> "Whistle a happy tune"
> 4. Bored - triggered by lack of changes in sensor readings
> "I'm bringing Home a baby bumblebee"
> "Theme from Jeopardy"
> 5. Tired - triggered by low light levels at CDS cell
> "Rockabye Baby"
> Brahms Lullaby
> 6. Hungry - triggered by low battery
> "My Bologna has a first name..."
> "Food, Glorious food"
> Anyone have any other ideas for states or songs that might be cute,
> funny or informative?
> P.S. If anyone is interested in non-blocking function timers or
> asynchronous music in AVRGCC, let me know and I'll post the code.
> Robotguy

Maybe it doesn't match with the original topic, but one the projects in my
infinite project list (and much likely improbable) is to implement automatic
doors in my home, but not a regular "star wars" or "star treck" doors thas
"swooosh" when they open. I'd like the door to greet me in
cheerful-but-annoying sounds just like the doors of the "Heart of Gold"

Posted by Tim Polmear on October 4, 2005, 11:11 pm

On 4 Oct 2005 14:34:50 -0700, "robotguy@gmail.com"

>Hey all,
>I have just finished coding the ability to play asynchronous music on
>my robot, and was considering having it communicate it's internal state
>to the user by playing different songs. Here is the list that I have
>come up with so far:
>1. Happy
> "If you're happy and you know it"
>2. Sad
> "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen"
>3. Afraid
> "Whistle a happy tune"
>4. Bored - triggered by lack of changes in sensor readings
> "I'm bringing Home a baby bumblebee"
> "Theme from Jeopardy"
>5. Tired - triggered by low light levels at CDS cell
> "Rockabye Baby"
> Brahms Lullaby
>6. Hungry - triggered by low battery
> "My Bologna has a first name..."
> "Food, Glorious food"
>Anyone have any other ideas for states or songs that might be cute,
>funny or informative?
>P.S. If anyone is interested in non-blocking function timers or
>asynchronous music in AVRGCC, let me know and I'll post the code.
>Robotguy

How about 'Marcia Funebre' (from Eroica) for when the power is
exhausted? 'Wheels in Motion' (Jimmy Barnes) for when it's drivin'
"Ooops I did it Again' for a collision .
"Wake me up before you go-go" for power on, (actually, your robot
might survive longer if you use any song with a similar theme *not*
written by Wham!)

Posted by Alex Gibson on October 5, 2005, 3:02 am

What no danger music ?

Could have Jaws theme . or lost in space ?
Or Jaws as attack music ?

I'd be interested in asynchronous music.

For the board that gets used for Digital systems subjects (pic + cpld)
we use http://www.beyondlogic.org/pic/ringtones.htm
in one of our test programs.
Starwars theme songs / simpsons etc

The computer systems subjects use
pic and cpld and coldfire for another.

Where as the mechatronics guys use AVRs.
Only just migrated from at90s8535 to Atmega8535.
For some reason they have an aversion to using
avr gcc / win avr.

Alex

Posted by robotguy@gmail.com on October 5, 2005, 11:09 am

The Jaws theme is a great idea. This robot (Flik is his name) is sized
for micro-sumo, so it would be fun to play "Jaws" while he hunts his
opponent.

My girls would get a kick out of hearing him play "Oops, I did it
again"

I am currently using the six-note "Charge!" for power on, but I just
guessed, and I know it's not right. If anyone knows the actual notes
for that, could you let me know?

I will clean up the code and post it on my website below, probably over
the weekend. I have found the non-blocking timers very useful. All it
takes is an call to InitTimers() and then you can set any function
,like blink(), to execute after a given time, eg. SetTimer(1000,blink).
The music is done by adding notes to a queue, QueueNote(A6,QUARTER),
and then a function called DequeueNote() pulls a note off the queue and
sets a timer to call itself again when the note is over. Sorry if that
didn't make sense, I'll try to make it clearer in the code when I post
it.

Robotguy
http://home.pacbell.net/jkkroll

Similar Threads	Posted
Synchronising a robot to music	January 24, 2008, 12:37 pm
Communicating with the pino	September 8, 2005, 3:14 am
Rover Status Report: Opportunity Takes a Dip Into Victoria Crater	September 11, 2007, 8:20 pm
Sound effects from microcontroller pin using PWM	May 13, 2009, 11:13 am
reference to an old topic	June 25, 2009, 9:49 pm
FS: Various ICs - Speech Synthesizers, Sound Generators & More	January 4, 2007, 5:20 pm
AD: SoundGin Sound Synthesizer Development Board Now Available	February 6, 2007, 12:35 pm
AD: SoundGin Sound Synthesizer Development Board Now Available	February 6, 2007, 12:46 pm
off topic: use laptop's screen for desktop PC ?	January 2, 2007, 11:30 pm
Music playing robots	June 25, 2006, 12:05 pm