Got rhythm? Haptic-only lead and follow dancing

This paper describes the design and implementation of a lead and follow dance to be performed with a human follower and PHANToM leader, or executed by two humans via two PHANToMs, reciprocally linked. In some contexts, such as teaching calligraphic character writing, haptic-only communication of information has demonstrated limited effectiveness. This project was inspired by the observation that experienced partner dance followers can easily decipher haptic-only cues, perhaps because of the structure of dancing, wherein a set of possible moves is known and changes between moves happen at times signalled by the music. This work is a demonstration of dancing, meaning coordination of a randomly sequenced set of known movements to a musical soundtrack, with a PHANToM as a leader, and of a human leader and follower dancing via a dual PHANToM teleoperation system.