Wireless Kick Pedal

The goal of the project is to build a wireless kick pedal that allows accessibility to drummers that have leg or foot disabilities and add versatility to multi-instrumentalists looking to add percussion while playing another instrument. The proposed pedal is designed in two main parts, a wearable band that tracks the player’s movement, and a hammer mechanism that receives actuation commands from the wearable band to move the hammer and deliver a drumbeat. The band is designed to be worn on several parts of the body, including the ankle, knee, thigh, or even the arm depending on the user’s situation. This is to allow compatibility for musicians of differing ability. The team plans to communicate from the band to the hammer mechanism over a short-range wireless communication protocol, so that the response time to deliver a beat is as close to human response time as possible. The hammer mechanism for physically delivering the drumbeat is to be designed such that the hammer strikes the drum similarly to how a commercial pedal would. With this pedal design, the team hopes to invite more people to play the drums and spark new ideas in the future of instrument innovations