Robotic drummer gradually acquires human-like behaviors

[DBoon]

https://techxplore.com/news/2025-08-robotic-drummer-gradually-human-behaviors.html

Researchers at SUPSI, IDSIA and Politecnico di Milano recently introduced Robot Drummer, a new humanoid robot that can play the drums both accurately and expressively, supported by a reinforcement learning algorithm. This robot, presented in a paper published on the arXiv preprint server, was found to gradually acquire human-like behaviors, including movements that are often performed by drummers.

"The idea for Robot Drummer actually emerged from a spontaneous conversation over coffee with my co-author, Loris Roveda," Asad Ali Shahid, first author of the paper, told Tech Xplore. "We were discussing how humanoid robots have become increasingly capable at a wide range of tasks, but rarely engage in creative and expressive domains. That raised a fascinating question: what if a humanoid robot could take on a creative role, like performing music? Drumming seemed like a perfect frontier, as it'

So they've developed a robot that will steal your girlfriend and drink all your beer? Maybe the robot also sleeps on your couch and drools.

[ZZenith]

1. Um, except the examples shown sounded horrible.

I have first year drum students that never sounded that bad.

And that’s just virtual - they haven’t even built a real one in meatspace.

[DBoon]

2. I was thinking of the bumper sticker wars on this

"drum machines have no soul"

Vs.
"drum machines won't steal your beer"

[ProfessorGAC]

8. Completely Agree

That first one had timing errors and zero feel.
It was rushing the snare on the Police tune, over & over. Stewart Copeland was actually lagging the hit, so the robot was doing the opposite of what made the part cool.
Knockin' on Heaven's Door was a train wreck.
I'm 10x better than the robot & I'm not a drummer!

[msongs]

3. will it get blisters on its fingers?

[Beartracks]

7. Maybe get a blister on its thumb.

That ain't workin'. That's the way you do it!

===============

[LudwigPastorius]

4. It is playing like it's fucked up out of its mind on quaaludes and malt liquor, so yeah...

it pretty much sounds like your average human Craigslist drummer.

[EarlG]

5. Weird

To evaluate their system, the researchers tested it on a simulated G1 Unitree robot, assessing its ability to perform popular songs across different genres, from jazz to rock and metal. These included well-known tracks like "In the End" by Linkin Park, "Take Five" by Dave Brubeck and "Living on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi. They found that the robot effectively learned complex rhythmic structures and played the songs with high accuracy, often with a rhythmic precision of over 90%.

I wonder why they didn’t share that video then, cuz in the one they shared it doesn’t sound like the robot drummer hit a single correct note. It was consistently off time and couldn’t seem to identify the downbeat at all.

[justaprogressive]

6. Oy

Drumming is more than just holding the beat.

How do you know a drummer is at your door?

The knocks keep getting faster...