Movement synchronization of a group of Nao's

At the beginning all the robots are waiting for my signal to start. While dancing, they are constantly synchronizing with each other, so if a robot lags behind they will wait for him and the late robot will accelerate. When I remove a robot from the choreography, the others continue dancing. When he stands up again and resumes his dance, he asks the others for a starting position. Then he goes to this position, and starts dancing. Since he starts with a little latency, he will dances a little faster and the others a little slower to synchronize.



The music is played by another robot, and is a part of the synchronization process : the robots are synchronizing with the music too.

This work is the result of the collaboration between the Nonlinear System. The team of dancing NAO robots was built by a team of researchers from Aldebaran Robotics and MIT's Patrick Bechon and Jean-Jacques Slotine who did the programming. It is worth mentioning that the robots make use of a process known as quorum sensing, which allows them to work in sync. It would be interesting to note that in nature this process occurs when bacteria release molecules into the environment so individuals can trace the number of organisms that are around them and what these organisms are doing. In NAO robots the release of molecules was replaced by the transmission of information that allows the machine to synchronize them. This works even in case one of the machines has been removed from the group. The MIT team says that such technology can go beyond just dancing. Synchronization allows robots to do the same task simultaneously but it also makes it possible for machines to perform tasks that are related in chorus. Thus robots could be used in manufacturing and construction for example.''

Categories: NAO , NAO robots , NAO robots dancing , News robot , robot 2012