Robotics for Dancers: S1 Charlie Test Scenario A

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Thesis: An Exploration Into Digital Technology and Applications for the Advancement of Dance Education

Carl Sanders
Teaching Dance with Technology
Robotics for Dancers

DJI RoboMaster S1 aka “Charlie”

Charlie’s technology was tested through a series of three dance educational scenarios that involved a) virtual class instructing, b) in studio student experimentation, and c) on-site choreography, to explore multiple methods of merging student-centered learning with the use of technology.

Virtual Class - teaching classes online requires a constant awareness of staying in view of the screen for proper student or teacher viewing.The intent of this scenario was to explore the use of an autonomous robot as a video monitoring tool to enhance mobility as an instructor or student in a virtual dance class setting. Most online classes are experienced in the home environment, so my objective was to test the robot’s tracking capabilities in a confined space. I implemented an additional mount fixed on the hood of Charlie, which would hold an iPhone that displayed the Zoom video conferencing platform.
After arranging my new home studio space, for safety of Charlie, and assuring all devices were connected and working successfully, I introduced Chairlie 25 tap students in a class UC, Irvine. I began by reading Charlie’s bio of capabilities. Dancers were fascinated and immediately inspired comments and questions such as: Wow, where did you get that?, how does it work? Much as I would in a traditional dance technique class, I explained and demonstrated the functionality of Charlie’s movement. The dancers instantly began discussing their possible uses for partnering with Charlie in their creative work or practice. Once the excitement of imagining the options settled down, we began dancing. First, with a dance warmup, I used the motion tracking functions, its person identity mode, and through a green-gridded screen, a yellow rectangle box, I recognized my highlighted body. With a single tap, I enabled the gimbal to pan and tilt with slight movement of the wheels to accommodate wide rotations of the camera’s gimbal arm. A simple vocal cue of “start recording”, Charlie began filming my movements.

As the class proceeded I switched to the person targeting mode, which unlocked Charlie’s omnidirectional wheels. This function is activated by a double tap to my image in the Matrix style interface. I moved freely around my teaching space as Charlie followed my forward, backward, and sideways motion, as well as spins, curved lines, and circles. Lastly, I demonstrated a tap dance combination and the audio sound from my taps were recorded in real time through Charlie speakers and stored as a recording file. Charlie’s documenting of video and could later be played back and that data could be manipulated and programmed with other devices.

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