Published in The Scotsman, Tues 1 Aug 2006

McBlare to make Scottish bow

THE ROBOTIC piper designed by academics at a US university is to make its Scottish performing debut - with a little help from scotsman.com.

In June this website featured a story about McBlare, a piper built to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The story has now led to an invitation to have the world's first piping robot perform in Scotland at next week's international piping festival.

The robot, accompanied by its developer, Professor Roger Dannenberg, will make the transatlantic flight - the first time McBlare has left American soil - for its Scottish debut on 11 August at the National Piping Centre in Glasgow.

Dannenberg said he was contacted by Roddy MacLeod, director of Piping Live! - Glasgow International Piping Festival, to see if a visit was possible.

"I am really looking forward to it," Dannenberg said. "I will be interested to have people hearing the robot and hearing their comments and suggestions."

Since last visiting McBlare in Pittsburgh, Dannenberg has had the robot's "body" mounted on a tripod and wrapped in a kilt.

"It has spindly little legs and looks like a three-legged Martian - like a creature from War of the Worlds crossed with a kilted piper," he added.

Perhaps a few drops of the hard stuff in Glasgow will put some hair on McBlare's chest?