Musician builds and programs ROBOT ARM to perform duet with him

By Jessica Hehir-Smith via SWNS

This young musician built and programmed a robot arm from scratch that performs a three-minute keyboard duet with him.

William Sun Petrus, 24, was inspired to create the robot arm when he came across a broken record player and decided it needed a new lease on life.

He took the old record player apart then wrote a computer program for the arms, driven by motors, a microcomputer and other electronic parts.

William then programmed the robot arm to move in response to his own movements.

Full-time software developer and musician William was influenced by experimental performance artists such as Shawn Wasabi, Jack Conte and SoNevable.

The footage ends with a shortened version of the original, three-minute song that William - and the robot - performed together.

William, from Scotland, said the items for the project cost around £160 ($194) - but he destroyed about £200 ($243) worth of materials trying to make his plan come to life.

The clips were taken over the course of a year - the actual build took eight months and he spent an hour every day for four months practicing his performance.

William makes similar creative projects in his spare time and shares them on his YouTube channel.

He said: “I was inspired by performance artists like Shawn and Jack about 10 years ago, but I wasn’t very talented at making music or performing back then.

“I've grown up now and learned a lot about creating and performing. Now I'm able to make my own projects like the artists I looked up to. I hope that my work will inspire the next generation of artists!”