Creating a movement from scratch - Part 2

You can create your own movement in Nao from scratch. We will step through the details of creating a small movement involving the hands, arms, and head of the Nao.

1. Open Choregraphe by opening a terminal and typing choregraphe.


2. During our movement, we want the Nao to be standing, so the first thing we should do is add a Stand Up motion. In the box list on the left side of the Choregraphe window, select Motions -> Stand Up and then drag and drop it onto the flow diagram panel. Notice that there are several inputs and outputs to the stand up box, as well as a wrench. Clicking on a wrench in the box allows you to set parameters for that box. For Stand Up, the parameter is how many times the Nao should try to stand up before giving up. The default parameter is 3, which is fine for us, so we will not change it. Mouse over the different input and output options to see their tool-tips.
   
   


3. Connect Stand Up's onStart input to the main onStart.
   
   


4. We also want to the Nao to finish in a sitting position, so we need to add a Sit Down box. We do that by selecting Motions -> Sit Down and dragging and dropping it onto the flow diagram in the same way as the stand up box. Then, we connect Sit Down's onStopped outputs to the main onStopped output.
   
   


5. Save the current Choregraphe movement by clicking on File -> Save project. Save the project as scratchmovement2. Save your work frequently in Choregraphe.


6. Both stand up and sit down are pre-made movements in Choregraphe. We will now make a movement from scratch. From the box list, select Templates -> Animation and drag and drop it onto the flow diagram between stand up and sit down. Connect the success output of Stand up to the onStart input of Animation. Connect the onStopped output of Animation to the onStart input of Sit Down.
   
   


7. Double click on the Animation box to begin creating the movement from scratch.


8. In this tutorial we will create a Nao movement by posing the Nao and saving the posed movement, so we must connect to a Nao. Turn on your desired Nao, wait for the Nao to be ready to connect, then connect to that Nao using Choregraphe.


9. SOMEONE MUST HOLD ONTO THE ROBOT CONTINUOUSLY DURING THE NEXT SEVERAL STEPS. You will move your Nao into a standing position by clicking on the Stand position in the pre-made poses library. Be ready to help your Nao into that position.


10. On the motion section, select time 20. This will be the time of the first movement. We could select any time greater than 1, but we cannot select 1 because that would indicate that the Nao should be in that position at the start of this box.


11. If stiffness is enabled (the Enable/Disable stiffness button is red), disable the stiffness by clicking on the Enable/Disable stiffness button so that it becomes green. This will allow you to move the Nao into a desired position. Move the Nao slowly, and do not force a movement if there is resistance.


12. Move one of the Nao's arms into a new position, and right click on the timeline at time 20. Select Store joints in keyframe -> Arms to store the joints position in the keyframe.
    
    


13. If desired, click on later places in the timeline to store the movements of other parts of the Naos body, such as the head. Before attempting to move the Nao into another position, make sure that the stiffness is disabled (check the color the Enable/Disable stiffness button). If the stiffness is enabled, disable it by clicking the button, but be aware that this may cause the Nao to fall or its arms to fall.


14. Once your desired movement is complete, return the Nao to a standing pose using the pre-made poses library. Make sure stiffness is enabled.


15. Press play to see the actual Nao robot perform the movement.