SoftBank Robotics documentation What's new in NAOqi 2.8?

Your first steps in Choregraphe

How to make NAO do something

To make NAO do something with Choregraphe:

Step Action For further details, see ...
Create a Behavior. How to create a Behavior
Connect Choregraphe to NAO. How to connect your NAO
If the behavior includes motion, then wake up NAO. How to wake up your NAO
Play the Behavior. How to play a Behavior

How to create a Behavior

To create a Behavior:

Step Action Example: make your robot say “Hello!”
Select boxes from the Box libraries panel. Select the Speech > Creation > Say box.
Drag and drop them into the Flow diagram panel.  
Connect them so as to define the sequence of action to perform.

Drag the mouse from the onstart-inside-button onStart input of the behavior to the onstart-outside-button onStart input of the box in order to create a link as illustrated on the diagram below.

../../_images/beginning_hello.png

How to connect your NAO

To connect Choregraphe to NAO:

Step Action

Choose the Connection > Connect to menu.

The Connect to panel is displayed.

Select your Robot, then click the Connect to button.

For further details, see: Connecting Choregraphe to a robot.

How to wake up your NAO

To wake up NAO:

Click the stiffen-button Wake up button in the toolbar.

Why do I need to wake up NAO

Wake Up means set the Stiffness of all motors on. Additionally, if the robot is crouched, he also goes to the StandInit posture.

In Choregraphe, set the Stiffness or “enslave” is the action to provide power to the motors of your robot. When your NAO is not stiffened, its limbs are soft like a puppet, its motors do not have power. To execute behaviors and see the result on your connected robot, you have to stiffen it, giving power to the motors.

To go further

Instead of stiffening all joints of NAO, it is possible to set the Stiffness of each joint individually.
For further details, see the Limb properties of Robot View.

It is also possible to set the Stiffness, during the execution of a Behavior, to an intermediary value, as all actions don’t require the same strength. To do so, add the Set Stiffness box to your Behavior.

How to play a Behavior

To play a Behavior:

  • Choose Connection > Play or
  • Click play-button Play button in the toolbar.

The Behavior of your root Flow diagram is now executed by the robot you are connected to.

To go further

Once the Behavior has been played, you can also launch unconnected boxes alone by double-clicking on their onstart-outside-button onStart input.

Try other key behaviors

Lots of easy-to-use boxes are available in the Box libraries panel.
Here are some examples and a guideline to discover others by yourself.

How to make NAO walk

To make NAO walk:

Step Action
Drag and drop the Movement > Navigation > Move To box.
Click the parameter-button Parameter button of the box.

Set the parameters.

To read the full definition of each parameter, hold the pointer over it.

../../_images/contextual_tooltip.png
  • The first two parameters define the target position of the robot, relative to its position and orientation when the box is triggered.

    X=1 and Y=0 is one meter in front of the robot.

    X=0 and Y=1 is one meter to the left of the robot.

  • The third parameter is the desired orientation of the robot, still relative to its orientation when the box is triggered.

Click OK button.
Connect the Behavior onstart-inside-button onStart Input to the onstart-outside-button onStart Input of the Box.

Click play-button Play button.

Your robot walks.

Go on and test the various parameters for the walk box.

To go further

Walking is very complicated movement that can’t be designed by keyframe animation. This is why we have developed specific tools that should help you. One of the main modules of the robot is ALMotion. For further details, see the NAOqi Motion.

How to make NAO say something

To make NAO say something different than hello:

Step Action
Drag and drop the Speech > Creation > Say box onto your Flow diagram.

Link it to the beginning of the root Behavior.

Your Flow diagram should look like that:

../../_images/beginning_hello.png

Double click the Say box in order to get into it.

Your Flow diagram should look like that:

../../_images/chore_flow_diagram_inside_say_box.png

The Say box has an intern Flow diagram gathering two boxes:

  • Localized Text box and
  • a script box that handles the speaking process.
Change the text in the Localized Text box to make NAO say what you want.

You can also change:

Click play-button Play button.

Your robot says your text.

To come back to the main Flow diagram, click the root on the Box path (see Flow diagram panel).

How to discover other boxes

To discover a box:

Step Action

Select the box from the Box libraries panel.

Read the description displayed at the bottom of the Box libraries panel.

Drag and drop it into the Flow diagram panel.

If there is one, click the parameter-button Parameter button of the box.

Read the full definition of each parameter, by holding the pointer over it.

../../_images/contextual_tooltip.png
Explore each input and output of the box by holding the pointer over it.
Double click the box and explore its content.

Useful settings

How to change NAO language

no-virtual Cannot be tested on a simulated robot.


To change NAO language in Choregraphe:

Step Action
Drag and drop the Speech > Speech Settings > Set Language box onto your Flow diagram.

Link the box to the beginning of the root behavior.

Your diagram should look like that:

../../_images/change_language.png
Click the parameter-button Parameter button of the box.

Select a language and click OK button.

Note

The chosen language must be installed on the robot.

For further details, see: Language management.

Another way to change the language of the robot is to modify his preferred language. For further details see: Setting Pepper’s preferred language or Setting NAO’s preferred language.

How to set NAO‘s volume

no-virtual Cannot be tested on a simulated robot.


In Choregraphe, you have different possibilities to set the volume of your robot.

You can:

  • Click the Volume button located in the Toolbar.

    This button displays a slider that allows you to set the volume.

    ../../_images/volume.png
  • Set the Volume using the Robot Settings.

  • Use the Set Speaker Volume box.

How to change NAO‘s active camera

no-virtual Cannot be tested on a simulated robot.


To switch camera with Choregraphe, use the Select Camera box:

Step Action
Drag and drop the Vision > Select Camera box onto your Flow diagram.
Play the behavior by clicking on the play-button Play button:
Wait until Choregraphe has finished sending the behavior to the robot.

Double click on one or the other input of the box.

You can see in the Video monitor panel that the camera has changed.

To display the Video monitor panel, see How to display/hide panels section.