Virtual Robotic Musicianship: Challenges and Opportunities

In the last few decades, robots have fostered unique possibilities for musical performance and composition, allowing novel interactions with musicians and memorable experiences for the audience. Robotic musicians can be built in many shapes and have diverse functionalities, making robot musicianship a fertile research field. However, building physical robots requires access to electrical and mechanical components, as well as laboratory equipment, which can make them financially unfeasible in peripheral countries. Moreover, building physical experimental devices quickly raises the problem of disposing of broken or outdated parts. Finally, the COVID-19 crisis has decreased access to laboratories and forced social isolation, which further harms physical robots’ development. In this position paper, we argue that the current technology for robot simulation can be used to provide most aspects of physical robots, with considerable advantages related to the financial cost, the environmental impact, and the possibility of testing and sharing robots using the Internet. We also discuss previous work on virtual presence, which indicates that both the performers and the audience can feel being present in the same space as the virtual robots. Lastly, we anticipate challenges and research opportunities in this field of research.