|
The
two-armed robot, designed by Swiss firm ABB, made its debut at
Pisa's Verdi Theatre to mark the First International Festival of
Robotics in the Tuscan city.
"We basically had to find time to understand his movements. When
we found the way, everything was pretty easy," said the
orchestra's resident conductor, Andrea Colombini.
"It is absolutely fantastic. And the technicians were fantastic
just to make everything perfect, especially in the length and in
the speed of the gesture, which is very important," he said.
YuMi, whose name is derived from the phrase 'you and me', was
taught all the movements by Colombini, who held its arms in
rehearsals so the computer could memorize the correct gestures.
The robot is not able to improvise and any unexpected change in
tempo from the musicians would have been ruinous.
The robot conducted three of the 18 pieces performed on Tuesday
night, including the famous aria La Donna e' Mobile, from
Verdi's opera Rigoletto.
(Writing by Eleanor Biles; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
|
