Integrating an autonomous robot on a dance and new technologies festival

This paper presents the results of a project to integrate an autonomous mobile robot into a modern dance performance at a dance and new technologies festival. The main goal is to integrate a simple low cost mobile robot into the dance performance, in order to study the possibilities that this kind of platforms can offer to the artists. First, this work explains the process and design to embed the robotic platform into the choreography theme. Another contribution described in this work is the system architecture proposed and built to make the robot behaviours match the artists requirements: precise, synchronized and robust robot movements. Finally, we discuss the main issues and lessons learned for this kind of robotics and arts applications and summarize the results obtained, including the successful final live performance results

Towards a learning framework for dancing robots

How can we make robots learn how to dance? How do humans learn to dance? An emerging culture of dancing robots is becoming more prominent in the research community with more emphasis on how we can show of our own creativity rather than allowing the robots to develop their own cognitive and psychological behaviours to the music being played. There are many different types of music and indeed, many different robots and many ways, in which they can dance to music however, much of the work carried out in this field concern limiting robots to dance in particular ways to a specific music and no adaptive behaviour implemented in them to be able to respond intuitively to music in general. We propose in this paper, a way in which such a problem can begin to be looked into, by introducing fundamental things that should be learnt that are necessary for dancing. We programmed a virtual robot to learn to dance to the beat as well as recognise the downbeat of any time-signature and tailor its movements to the loudness of music, using the Sarsa and the Sarsa(lambda) algorithms from reinforcement learning as the learning framework. Experimental results show that it is possible to make robots learn to dance to these fundamental rhythmic features of music

Can can robótico

Tese de mestrado em Engenharia Informática (Interacção e Conhecimento), apresentada à Universidade de Lisboa, através da Faculdade de Ciências, 2011Cada vez mais a área de robótica tem vindo a despertar maior interesse devido à sua aplicação em diversas áreas que vão desde aplicações militares até aplicações domésticas. Uma das áreas que tem sido bastante desenvolvida é a área de entretenimento. Nesta área existem robôs que fazem o papel de animais de estimação e robôs que funcionam como parceiros de dança ou de conversa. O objectivo deste projecto consiste em explorar a área de entretenimento através da intersecção do mundo da robótica e da dança, criando um robô dançarino que seja capaz de reagir ao ritmo musical em tempo real e de dançar de acordo com a música que está a tocar. A maioria dos robôs bailarinos dança utilizando a imitação. Com algumas excepções como seja o caso do robô da Lego de João Manuel Oliveira que reage à música que está a ouvir em tempo real. No entanto este robô não tem como objectivo principal a dança mas sim o sistema de análise de som. Neste documento serão apresentados os passos dados com vista a construir um robô capaz de dançar cancan em tempo real.More and more robotics is an area that has come to awake a greater interest due to its application in diverse areas that go from military applications to domestic ones. One of the areas that has been greatly developed is entertainment. In this area there are robots that do the part of pet animals and those who work as dance or talk partners. The objective of this project consists in exploring the area of entertainment through the intersection of robotic and dance world, creating a dancing robot that is capable of reacting to musical rhythm in real time and dance according to a song that is playing. Most dancing robots use imitation. With a few exception like the case of the Lego robot of João Manuel Oliveira that reacts to the music that it’s listening in real time. However this robot prime goal isn’t dance but a system of sound analysis. In this document will be presented the steps towards building a robot capable of dancing “cancan” in real time

Making a Robot Dance to Music Using Chaotic Itinerancy in a Network of FitzHugh-Nagumo Neurons

Abstract. We propose a technique to make a robot execute free and solitary dance movements on music, in a manner which simulates the dynamic alternations between synchronisation and autonomy typically observed in human behaviour. In contrast with previous approaches, we preprogram neither the dance patterns nor their alternation, but rather build in basic dynamics in the robot, and let the behaviour emerge in a seemingly autonomous manner. The robot motor commands are generated in real-time by converting the output of a neural network processing a sequence of pulses corresponding to the beats of the music being danced to. The spiking behaviour of individual neurons is controlled by a biologically-inspired model (FitzHugh-Nagumo). Under appropriate parameters, the network generates chaotic itinerant behaviour among low-dimensional local attractors. A robot controlled this way exhibits a variety of motion styles, some being periodic and strongly coupled to the musical rhythm and others being more independent, as well as spontaneous jumps from one style of motion to the next. The resulting behaviour is completely deterministic (as the solution of a non-linear dynamical system), adaptive to the music being played, and believed to be an interesting compromise between synchronisation and autonomy.

Towards an interactive framework for robot dancing applications

Estágio realizado no INESC-Porto e orientado pelo Prof. Doutor Fabien GouyonTese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores - Major Telecomunicações. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 200

Towards a framework to make robots learn to dance

A key motive of human-robot interaction is to make robots and humans interact through different aspects of the real world. As robots become more and more realistic in appearance, so has the desire for them to exhibit complex behaviours. A growing area of interest in terms of complex behaviour is robot dancing. Dance is an entertaining activity that is enjoyed either by being the performer or the spectator. Each dance contain fundamental features that make-up a dance. It is the curiosity for some researchers to model such an activity for robots to perform in human social environments. From current research, most dancing robots are pre-programmed with dance motions and few have the ability to generate their own dance or alter their movements according to human responses while dancing. This thesis explores the question Can a robot learn to dance? . A dancing framework is proposed to address this question. The Sarsa algorithm and the Softmax algorithm from traditional reinforcement learning form part of the dancing framework to enable a virtual robot learn and adapt to appropriate dance behaviours. The robot follows a progressive approach, utilising the knowledge obtained at each stage of its development to improve the dances that it generates. The proposed framework addresses three stages of development of a robot s dance: learning ability; creative ability of dance motions, and adaptive ability to human preferences. Learning ability is the ability to make a robot gradually perform the desired dance behaviours. Creative ability is the idea of the robot generating its own dance motions, and structuring them into a dance. Adaptive ability is where the robot changes its dance in response to human feedback. A number of experiments have been conducted to explore these challenges, and verified that the quality of the robot dance can be improved through each stage of the robot s development

Nonlinear Dynamics, Synchronisation and Chaos in Coupled FHN Cardiac and Neural Cells

Physiological systems are amongst the most challenging systems to investigate from a mathematically based approach. The eld of mathematical biology is a relatively recent one when compared to physics. In this thesis I present an introduction to the physiological aspects needed to gain access to both cardiac and neural systems for a researcher trained in a mathematically based discipline. By using techniques from nonlinear dynamical systems theory I show a number of results that have implications for both neural and cardiac cells. Examining a reduced model of an excitable biological oscillator I show how rich the dynamical behaviour of such systems can be when coupled together. Quantifying the dynamics of coupled cells in terms of synchronisation measures is treated at length. Most notably it is shown that for cells that themselves cannot admit chaotic solutions, communication between cells be it through electrical coupling or synaptic like coupling, can lead to the emergence of chaotic behaviour. I also show that in the presence of emergent chaos one nds great variability in intervals of activity between the constituent cells. This implies that chaos in both cardiac and neural systems can be a direct result of interactions between the constituent cells rather than intrinsic to the cells themselves. Furthermore the ubiquity of chaotic solutions in the coupled systems may be a means of information production and signaling in neural systems

Paradoxes of interactivity: perspectives for media theory, human-computer interaction, and artistic investigations

Current findings from anthropology, genetics, prehistory, cognitive and neuroscience indicate that human nature is grounded in a co-evolution of tool use, symbolic communication, social interaction and cultural transmission. Digital information technology has recently entered as a new tool in this co-evolution, and will probably have the strongest impact on shaping the human mind in the near future. A common effort from the humanities, the sciences, art and technology is necessary to understand this ongoing co- evolutionary process. Interactivity is a key for understanding the new relationships formed by humans with social robots as well as interactive environments and wearables underlying this process. Of special importance for understanding interactivity are human-computer and human-robot interaction, as well as media theory and New Media Art. "Paradoxes of Interactivity" brings together reflections on "interactivity" from different theoretical perspectives, the interplay of science and art, and recent technological developments for artistic applications, especially in the realm of sound