Player Violin

In the fall of 2019, I worked as a mechanical design consultant on a project funded by QRS Music Technologies to design and prototype a MIDI controlled, player violin. My main responsibility was designing the mechanism to move the violin bow back and forth across the strings, and tilt to be able to play different strings. The bow does not actually play the strings, but I also helped design the sound production system, using a surface transducer to excited the soundboard with a custom synthesized string waveform.

IMG_3194.mov

Bowing mechanism "cradle" designed in Onshape. A DC motor with encoder with a friction drive wheel sends the bow back and forth, guided by rollers on springs to keep it in line. Limit switches are placed on either side to home the end of the bow. A servo motor with an offset hub embedded in the base of the box connects to a lever arm that adjusts the angle of the bow to play different strings.