Accelerating Audio Research with Robotic Dummy Heads

TL;DR

This paper presents a robotic dummy head that combines realistic acoustics with mobility, enabling automated and dynamic spatial audio experiments to accelerate research and facilitate new studies in binaural processing.

Contribution

Introduction of a mobile robotic dummy head that combines acoustic realism with mobility, supporting automated and dynamic audio experiments, with open-source design files.

Findings

High-quality audio data collection demonstrated

Device capable of moving, talking, and listening like humans

Potential for studying adaptive binaural beamforming

Abstract

This work introduces a robotic dummy head that fuses the acoustic realism of conventional audiological mannequins with the mobility of robots. The proposed device is capable of moving, talking, and listening as people do, and can be used to automate spatially-stationary audio experiments, thus accelerating the pace of audio research. Critically, the device may also be used as a moving sound source in dynamic experiments, due to its quiet motor. This feature differentiates our work from previous robotic acoustic research platforms. Validation that the robot enables high quality audio data collection is provided through various experiments and acoustic measurements. These experiments also demonstrate how the robot might be used to study adaptive binaural beamforming. Design files are provided as open-source to stimulate novel audio research.