Haile (pronounced Hi-lee) is a robot percussionist developed by the Georgia Institute of Technology that listens to music in real time and creates an accompanying beat.
Detecting changes in these qualities helps Haile to assume either a leading or following style of play, roles that define the robot's collaborative abilities.
Driscoll's initial goal for making Haile was to combine the use of auditory input and robotics to create a musical experience that would lead to further human–robot interaction.
[5] Weinberg and his team first developed the robot's low-level perception ability, which includes detecting hit onsets, pitch, amplitude, and density.
The right arm, which plays softer and faster notes, is driven by a solenoid, which uses an aluminum stick and return spring capable of hitting the drum at up to 15 Hz.
Both arms are capable of hitting anywhere (from the rim to the center) on the drum through the use of a linear slide, which allows each of them completely independent movement in a single direction.
[5] The robot has two modes of play: Some of the challenges that Weinberg faced with Haile's programming involved being able to distinguish between different, simultaneous sounds.
After a considerable amount of adjusting, the filters and input hardware were tuned to differentiate between various volumes of music while ignoring interfering noise.
Weinberg, trying to model human musical interaction, implemented volume and noise density sensors to aid in the robot's ability to define leadership.