I built a robot drummer named Steve this summer with a couple friends from Texas State Technical College in Waco. We used the facilities at the college to machine the parts needed. It’s a dual push/pull solenoid design for added power. I built a MSA-T circuit from Highly Liquid to drive the solenoids and indicator LEDs.
There has been a little discussion about how the band is using Steve’s gifts. Using the MSA-T I’m able to program beats for Steve to play right in Ableton Live and run them alongside the sequences we run. He’s very consistent night to night as long as all distance variables do not change (like snare height vs drum stick height) but this is easy to set.
For some more info and future purchasing possibilities see: