A simple script language for choreography of multiple, synchronizing non-anthropomorphic robots

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simple scripting language designed for choreographing multiple non-anthropomorphic robots, enabling synchronized performances with minimal autonomy, primarily for stage applications.

Contribution

It presents a new scripting language tailored for controlling synchronized robot performances, focusing on simplicity and specific application in stage robot choreography.

Findings

Preliminary implementation on Lego Mindstorms robots underway.

Language enables precise synchronization of multiple robots.

Designed for robots appearing as domestic objects in performances.

Abstract

The scripting language described in this document is (in the first place) intended to be used on robots developed by Anja M{\o}lle Lindelof and Henning Christiansen as part of a research project about robots performing on stage. The target robots are expected to appear as familiar domestic objects that take their own life, so to speak, and perhaps perform together with human players, creating at illusion of a communication between them. In the current version, these robots' common behaviour is determined uniquely by a script written in the language described here -- the only possible autonomy for the robots is action to correct dynamically for inaccuracies that arise during a performance. The present work is preliminary and has not been compared to properly to other research work in this area, and the testing is still limited. A first implementation on small Lego Mindstorms based robots is under development by Mads Saustrup Fox as part of his master thesis work.