The dancing white man of Leonard van Munster has been on exhibit in ‘Stadschouwburg Amsterdam’ from 2012 until 2016. It featured at TEDx Amsterdam (2012), in Klokhuis and many other media. It also has been on display in Museum de Hallen, Haarlem and Mediafestival Hoofddorp.
The dancing man consists of an aluminium frame which is partly actuated by pneumatic cylinders. Some of the motions (degrees of freedom) are coupled, others are uncontrolled. Aim of this is to give the robot sometimes unpredictable behaviour during the dance. The top (neck, head, eyes) are servo-controlled. The casting and painting have been done by Rob’s Propshop. The whole setup is controlled using custom MIDI-based animatronics which keeps the dance in sync with the music and allows for programming the robot using music editing tools.
