< Back | Home

Slashbot, a 'Guitar Hero'-playing robot, can achieve 96 percent accuracy. The robot was built for an electrical engineering design class using mechanical actuators and a computer program.

Engineers build 'Guitar Hero' robot

By: Kenny Ryan

Posted: 4/29/08

The fascination of artificial intelligence has captivated people for years and was the focal point for the "Guitar Hero" playing robot, Slashbot, built by a group of Texas A&M engineering majors as part of their senior project.

Vinny Lapenna, a computer engineering major, is a member of the four-man team that built Slashbot. He said the inspiration for the project came from an episode of "South Park" that focuses on the game "Guitar Hero."

"We all saw that episode and we all thought it was really funny," Lapenna said. "For some reason it just became an inspiration for us to make a robot to play 'Guitar Hero.'?"

The robot is built with five mechanical fingers to play the notes along the neck of the guitar and another that strums the notes at the correct time. Slashbot knows when to play by taking the video signal from the group's PlayStation 2 and reading the grayscale pixels of the fret board as they move down the screen. Each time it detects the white dot at the center of each note approaching, it waits the appropriate delay to strum the note on time.

Slashbot reliably plays many songs on "Expert Mode" with approximately 96 percent accuracy.

"There's a YouTube video where I duel it, and I got 96 percent to its 97 percent," Lapenna said. "In my defense, I could have scored higher if we tried again."

Groupmate Michael Voth, a computer engineering major, sacrificed his PlayStation 2 and copy of "Guitar Hero," and left it in the lab for the semester so the robot could be built. Lapenna testified that it was a group effort in which everyone did their share.

Other group members were electrical engineering major David Buckner, who plays drums for a local band, and computer engineering major Mitchell Jefferis. The group was united by its sense of humor and love of rock 'n' roll.

"We wanted to work on a project that we would want to work on, that we would be motivated to work on, that we would really get something out of," Lapenna said. "When we are done, we can share it with other people and let other people enjoy it too."

Aggies who think they can best Slashbot in a battle of axe grinding will have an opportunity to test their mettle. Slashbot will be available from 11 a.m. to

1 p.m. at Demo Day Tuesday in the Zachry lobby.

Challengers should be warned that Slashbot combines the skills of its namesake with the merciless precision of a machine.

"It's a combination of 'Slash,' the Guns N' Roses guitarist - because he's one of the greatest guitarists ever, I don't think that needs any explanation - and 'bot' because it's a robot," Lapenna said. "It was actually pretty cool. In our report I had a picture of Slash, plus a picture of a robot, equals Borat. 'Very nice.'?"

A YouTube video of Slashbot performing "Cliffs over Dover" has drawn more than 120,000 views since April 22. The 447 comments it has accrued in that time are split between, "Dude that's awesome!" "You have no life what-so-ever" and "One step closer to Skynet!"

Lapenna takes the compliments, and the criticism, in stride.

"People might think we have no lives, but we are engineers, so that's kind of been the case for the past four years."