At a concert in Tsinghua University,Fang Jinlong,a master of the traditional Chinese instrument pipa,and the robots from the Moja Robot Band performed several pieces of Chinese music. The robot musicians in the band,Yuheng,Yaoguang,and Kaiyang,played traditional Chinese instruments at the concert.
The team that developed the band was built in 2018. Mi Haipeng is the chief (首席) scientist of the team. He took part in the research and development of a robot rock band when he studied in Japan. That experience gave him the dream of making a Chinese robot band.
Mi said that the sound and playing style of traditional Chinese musical instruments are different from those in the West. Chinese people pay more attention to the feelings and expression of the players,but these are hard to control for robots. It also brings many posers to Moja robot development.
During the concert,the robot musicians used their "fingers" and "mouths" to play the instruments. Many students said that was the first time they had seen humans and robots play together. And they never thought robots could play so well.
Mi said the pieces of music in the concert were specially made for the robots to play. And there are more performance plans for Moja in the future,introducing new pieces of music. The team will improve the musical sense and emotional (情感的) expression of robots.