Boston Dynamics, BTS and Ballet: The Next Action of Robotics

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There is a scene in Swan Lake in it, Prince Siegfried, the sharp crossbow of its protagonist, loses Princess Swan to the swan in the enchanted forest. Suddenly, dozens of dancers will confront him with black swans. Surprised and confused, Siegfried goes in vain up and down the doppelgänger levels in search of his married couple. It scales the abundance of swans and their shared and robotically accurate movements.
At the time Swan Lake premiered at the end of the century, the confusion of the prince’s protagonist was already a trope among synchronous dancers. Romantic ballets are packed with moments like this, but can also be found in more contemporary choreography. American director Busby Berkeley became famous, among others 42nd Street dozens of dancers appeared without performing the same movements. Over the past few decades, the Rockettes and any boy band have brought similar styles to the stage. And throughout history, military marches, parades and public demonstrations have taken to the streets of strategy. Choreographing groups, the part that moves as a whole is a technique and a tactic.
We can take the ballet, the group of boys and the meeting point of the battalions with this Venn diagram “Spot it“, The latest dance video from the robotics manufacturer Boston Dynamics. A clip reminiscent of the company’s acquisition of Hyundai Motor Company features a quadruple robot “Spot” dancing “IONIQ: I’m on It,” a tour of Hyundai’s global ambassador and BTS mega-boyband, promoting the company’s electric car niche. series. In the video, several Spot robots perform an amazing sync in an obvious dystopian minute and 20 seconds.
The video opens with five robots in a row, one behind the other, so that only the front Spot can be fully seen. The music begins: a new age-old cadence protected by tuning applause and the prayer-like intonation of the BTS word “IONIQ”. The heads of the robots bloom and bloom along with the music, turning them into stars that are transforming tremendously, then a helix, and then a flower pose that breathes with the melody of flowers. Their ability for robotic accuracy allows otherwise simple gestures (head lift, 90-degree rotation, opening the “mouth” of the Spot) to create the mirror complexity of all robot performers. Busby Berkeley’s “Spot’s On It” makes it difficult to distinguish robots, and sometimes it’s not clear which robot “heads” and which body corresponds to the robot.
Monica Thomas ’choreography takes advantage of the robots’ ability to move exactly similar to each other. In many rockettes, BTS, and ballet, the virtuosity of the individual is a function of the ability to move that does not distinguish one from one’s group. Spot robots, however, are functionally, kinesthetically, and visually identical to each other. Human performers may play with this similarity, but robots are fully embodied. Siegfried’s swan is amazing among a ballet robot.
From a technical standpoint, the robots ’ability to change movement shows the growing subtlety of Boston Dynamics’ choreography software, a component that is aptly called the “Choreography” of its Spot Software Development Kit (SDK). There, the robot user can select a sequence of choreo-robotic movements such as “bourree” – which he defines in the SDK as “cross-legged like ballet moves” and can change its relative speed, yaw and stance length. . In the application of an entire dance, a movement, such as “bourree,” can be reversed, inverted, mirrored, wide or narrow, fast or slow, the distortion can be increased or decreased in the group. Thomas’s choreography makes full use of this ability to perform all sorts of kaleidoscopic effects.
This complexity and subtlety marks “Spot’s On It” as it moves away from the previous dances of Boston Dynamics. First of all, it’s clear that this video had a more intense production apparatus behind it: “Spot’s on It” is accompanied by a friendly corporate blog post which, for the first time, tells how Boston Dynamics expands choreography in its marketing and engineering processes. Also noteworthy is the first time Thomas has been publicly credited as a dance choreographer at Boston Dynamics. His work in “viral videos like”Uptown Spot“And”You love Me?”It became almost invisible, so Boston Dynamics’ decision to emphasize Thomas ’role in this latest video is a significant change in attitude. The sage Jessica Rajko has pointed out the company’s opaque work policies and vague reasons for not crediting Thomas, which is clearly compared to choreobotic researchers like Catie Cuan and Amy Laviers, who clearly make dancer contributions to their work. “Spot’s On It” represents a deeper and more complex connection to the dynamics of Boston Dynamics.
Even though Boston Dynamic robot dancers have now descended into the realm of branded shows, I am constantly amazed by the company’s choreographic steps. In the hands of artists, these machines are able to express themselves through interpretation. Boston Dynamics is a company that takes dance seriously, and according to its blog post, it uses choreography as “a way to test the bike’s speed for hardware.” This whole dance is meant to be fun and functional.
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