Jon Bot Jovi Plays Guitar Hero

Nick O’Hara isn’t great at Guitar Hero, but is good at making things. So in the video below, he built a Guitar Hero robot called “Jon Bot Jovi” that recognizes on-screen notes and plays the appropriate chords.

The device uses a Raspberry Pi 4 8GB model as the brains of the operation, running a computer vision routine to isolate the notes and eliminate noise. From this data it’s able to choose which frets to hit and when to activate the strum trigger. Each of these actions is performed with five solenoids arranged on the neck as well as a single solenoid on the trigger. A bank of relays is used for activation.

The results of the build are quite impressive, strumming away on the infamous “Through the Fire and Flames” level with a 97% accuracy. While not perfect, the speed at which its able to hit the proper buttons is extremely impressive, and its able streaks of 50 and 100 notes hit in a row on multiple occasions.

In addition to its computer vision/button mashing skills, the bot is constructed in true robo-rockstar fashion, with a black tubing and flexible hose body, along with a computer monitor “head” on top. The build looks like a lot of fun, and was probably an easier task than actually learning to play Guitar Hero as well as it does!