Dr. Squiggles, the Musical Octopus

While tapping a rhythm out on a desk or other surface is normally a singular – or at least human – activity, University of Oslo researcher Michael Krzyzaniak has come up with a robot to play with you! This bot, named “Dr. Squiggles,” takes the form of a cephalopod (AKA octopus), with solenoids attached to each of its eight tentacles for beat generation. An LED matrix forms its eyes and the body is made from laser-cut wooden panels.

Dr. Squiggles is built around a Raspberry Pi for overall processing, which listens to sound inputs using a contact microphone and a variety of adapters. A Teensy 3.2 board is implemented for more low-level control of the solenoids via a custom PCB/perfboard setup. The Teensy also animates the eye matrix, which adds a bit of visual interest the assembly (in addition to its knitted balaclava clothing).

As shown in the video below, several Drs. Squiggles can play together, using a piping arrangement to restrict its hearing only to the neighboring musical creature. What follows is a rather amusing and musically complex interaction, with the robots synchronizing their beats and changing things up progressively to make it interesting.

While a challenging project, f you’d like to construct your own, lots more info can be found in Krzyzaniak's Make: guide along with project files on GitHub.