It might look like some kind of weird robotic spider parasite, but Cabot may just turn out to be a musician’s best friend. Currently raising funds on Kickstarter, this oddball creation is a Japanese percussion robot that is designed to play the cajón, the versatile box-shaped drumming instrument that originally hails from Peru. The idea is simple: You play, sing, rap or otherwise produce music and Cabot will accompany you in the background by tapping out a handy rhythm to augment your jam session.
“Jamming with Cabot is easy,” creator Hideaki Iio told Digital Trends. “Attach it to a cajón and use our smartphone app to activate it. You can change rhythms with a footswitch while performing, [and] create your own rhythms with the app and share [them with] or download from other users. Your performance is jacked up a notch with pumping, natural acoustic rhythm. Your music is instantly elevated to a whole new realm as you jam together in perfect time with you directing the flow. It’s a completely cool and fun jamming experience!”
An enthusiastic guitar player, Iio said that he started work on the project after trying out a variety of apps designed to “add sounds and colors to my guitar playing.” There are numerous drum machines and other musical apps out there, but Iio claims that he was unable to find exactly what he was looking for. He then decided that developing a physical robot capable of playing an actual instrument was the answer. Two years later, Cabot was born. Well, provided that it can get the funding it’s looking for, that is!
As ever, we advise that potential customers are aware of the risks of crowdfunding campaigns before getting involved. However, if you’re keen to get your hands on a Cabot robot, you can head over to the project’s Kickstarter page to get involved. Provided that funding hits its target, a Cabot, footswitch, AC adapter, and connecting cable will set you back 95,040 yen ($862). An extra $260 will throw in a cajón if you don’t already have one of your own. Shipping is set to take place in March 2019.
