Sitar Control

A research internship at Centre d'Automatique des Systèmes, Mines ParisTech

by Jeremy Dahan, student at Mines ParisTech and member of the Trublion collective

This website is my report for my research internship at the CAS where I built a stringed musical instrument on which timbre is controled using electromagnets. A complete description can be found here

EDIT : This report was written in 2016, when I was a member of the Trublion collective and a Student of Mines-ParisTech


  1. Introduction
  2. Landscape of augmented instruments
  3. Design choices for the instrument
    1. General geometry
    2. Choosing the actuator
    3. Choosing the sensor
    4. Microcontroller, amplifier and woodworking
    5. Summary of the design
  4. Engineering a magnetic scanner
    1. Design
    2. Results
  5. Controlling the instrument
    1. State-sensor algorithm
    2. Dynamics of the system
    3. Code architecture and first control
    4. Linearising the actuators
  6. Discussion : Compairing with other setups
  7. Conclusion and future work
  8. About this website

Summary of the design

A visual summary of the test instrument design

A visual summary of the test instrument design

To sum up, the test instrument uses a shielded piezo sensor integrated in a single bass bridge for input, a Bela microcontroller for processing and communication, a current-output amplifier with its power supply for signal amplification, and a magnetic actuator (either the E-77-88 or the WF-P25/20).

Since we wanted to better understand the magnetic field generated by the actuator, we built a magnetic scanner, from a 3D printer and later a CNC mill. The design choices of this project are shown in the next section.