Tonight We Improvise!

We present an exploratory study based on dance improvisation to explore embodied interaction between human dancers and a mobile robot. Following extensive iterations with expert dancers, we developed a sequence of basic motion algorithms based on improvisation exercises to generate three unique, original performances between a robot and human performers trained in various dance styles. We developed a novel method for tracking the dancers in real time using inputs to generate choreography for the non-anthropomorphic robot. Although the motion algorithms were identical, the individual dancers generated vastly different performances and elicited unexpected motions and choreographies. We summarize our study and identify some challenges of devising performances between robots and humans, and outline future work to experiment with more advanced algorithms.