Temporal Synchronization among Interacting Individuals in Human-Robot Ensembles and Frog Choruses

This thesis aims at establishing a model of temporal synchronization among interacting individuals. Temporal synchronization occurs in many interactions with various features such as the size, the place, the stationary state, and the participants. To investigate a wide range of interactions, we analyze two cases of interaction that have different features: human-robot ensembles and frog choruses. The features of the human-robot ensembles are of small size (a few co-players), indoor interaction, in-phase synchronization in the stationary state, and humans as the participants. Here, in-phase synchronization means that the onset timings of all co-players are the same. The features of the frog choruses are of large size (dozens of frogs), outdoor interaction, anti-phase synchronization in the stationary state, and frogs as the participants. Here, anti-phase synchronization means that the call timings of two frogs alternate. This is because the chorus is for mating, i.e., the male frogs call to attract female frogs. Therefore, call overlap should be minimized so that females can localize males. For the human-robot ensemble, we develop a temporal synchronization model of multiperson ensemble and a human-robot ensemble system using the model. The requirement with the human-robot ensemble is threefold: (1) development of the music playing robot, (2) onset timing prediction of co-players, and (3) estimation of the leadership in an ensemble. To satisfy the first requirement, we develop a Thereminist Robot system that controls a robot to play the theremin. To satisfy the second and third requirements, we construct a state-space model by combining two components: the coupled oscillator model to represent the onset