Mechanical construction of a human vocal system for singing voice production

Abstract

Various ways of vocal sound production are being actively studied. We are constructing a phonetic machine with a vocal chord and a vocal tract based on mechatronics technology. Mechanical construction of a human vocal system is considered to generate natural voice so that it can be advantageously applied to singing voice production. In voice generation, analysis and mechanical realization of the behaviors of the vocal chords and vocal tract are required. Furthermore, the fluid mechanical system is less stable, thus making control more difficult. Several motors are employed to manipulate the mechanical vocal system. Mappings between motor positions and the produced vocal sounds are automatically established in the learning phase. In the singing performance, the system is able to sing while vocal pitches and phonemes are adaptively controlled by an auditory feedback process. This paper presents the latest mechanisms of our mechanical vocal system together with adaptive tuning algorithms of the physical mechanism with an auditory system.