| # 25 Microducks — Electric Slide |
|
|
| This layer extracts two human dancer skeletons, retargets a 38.92-second |
| Electric Slide to Pollen Robotics' Microduck, trains an expressive command |
| policy, generates a 5×5 MuJoCo scene from the official |
| `robot_allcollisions.xml`, and renders the result at 111 BPM. The official |
| balancing policies and learned command timeline run at 50 Hz while MuJoCo |
| integrates at 200 Hz. |
|
|
| ## What is included |
|
|
| - 25 independently named Microduck instances in a centered 5×5 formation. |
| - 525 generalized positions and 350 independently named position actuators. |
| - Per-duck duplicated IMU/root sensors with unique names. |
| - Collision-validated 1.2 m spacing for the final 25-duck performance. |
| - A pale studio background, high-contrast checkerboard floor, and soft colored rim lights. |
| - Human-motion-derived walking arcs, eight official left/right kick-policy |
| accents, and measured turn sections. Pollen's published walking demo leaves lateral |
| command at zero, so the choreography uses the policy's supported forward and |
| turning gaits rather than pretending an unsupported strafe is a step. |
| - A split screen: true front-follow camera on the center magenta duck and a |
| full formation camera. |
| - Direct physics diagnostics: foot strikes/liftoffs, falls, double-support |
| gaps, root travel, yaw, minimum spacing, and inter-duck contacts. |
| - Optional MP4 rendering and local-audio muxing. No copyrighted audio is bundled. |
|
|
| ## Human-motion and training pipeline |
|
|
| The local tutorial clip is not committed or uploaded. Derived skeleton data and |
| source-free QA media live in `mocap/derived`. |
|
|
| uv run --no-project --with ultralytics --with opencv-python-headless --with numpy python electric_slide/mocap/extract_human_pose.py C:\path\to\electric-slide_1m43s-2m22s.mp4 --output electric_slide/mocap/derived |
| |
| uv run --no-project --with numpy --with scipy --with opencv-python-headless python electric_slide/mocap/annotate_motion.py --pose electric_slide/mocap/derived/human_pose_coco17.npz --output electric_slide/mocap/derived |
| |
| uv run --no-project --with numpy --with scipy python electric_slide/mocap/retarget_human_motion.py --features electric_slide/mocap/derived/motion_features.npz --output electric_slide/generated/motion_retarget_50hz.npz |
| |
| Record the physically executed 14-joint teacher and train the expressive |
| human-motion-to-command policy: |
|
|
| uv run --no-project --with mujoco --with numpy --with onnxruntime python electric_slide/training/record_physics_reference.py --output electric_slide/training/artifacts/duck_reference_50hz.npz |
| |
| uv run python electric_slide/training/train_command_policy.py --retarget electric_slide/generated/motion_retarget_50hz.npz --output electric_slide/training/runs/reproduction --epochs 500 --seed 20260830 |
| |
| uv run --no-project --with numpy --with onnxruntime python electric_slide/training/apply_command_policy.py --retarget electric_slide/generated/motion_retarget_50hz.npz --policy electric_slide/training/runs/reproduction/human_motion_command_policy.onnx --output electric_slide/generated/learned_motion_retarget_50hz.npz |
| |
| The final safety hierarchy locks the already validated travel/turn channels and |
| kick schedule to the human-derived retarget. The trained model supplies |
| expressive head/body commands, and Pollen's official policies supply balanced |
| joint actions. A direct 61D-to-14D behavior-cloned policy was also trained, but |
| failed closed-loop MuJoCo validation and is intentionally not used. |
|
|
| ## Generate and validate the MJCF |
|
|
| From the repository root: |
|
|
| python electric_slide/generate_scene.py |
| python -m unittest discover -s electric_slide/tests -v |
| |
| Compile-check the generated model using an isolated CPU MuJoCo install: |
|
|
| uv run --no-project --with mujoco --with numpy python -c "import mujoco; m=mujoco.MjModel.from_xml_path('electric_slide/generated/microduck_25_scene.xml'); print(m.nq, m.nu)" |
| |
| Expected dimensions are 525 350. |
|
|
| ## Download the official policies |
|
|
| uvx --from huggingface_hub hf download pollen-robotics/microduck-simulator app/public/policies/BEST_alpha_walking.onnx app/public/policies/ball_kick_left.onnx app/public/policies/ball_kick_right.onnx --repo-type space --local-dir electric_slide/official |
| |
| ## Run the physics show |
|
|
| uv run --no-project --with mujoco --with numpy --with onnxruntime python electric_slide/physics_show.py --strict --scene electric_slide/generated/microduck_25_scene_1p2m.xml --spacing 1.2 |
| |
| Render a silent 720p MP4: |
|
|
| uv run --no-project --with mujoco --with numpy --with onnxruntime --with imageio --with imageio-ffmpeg python electric_slide/physics_show.py --strict --scene electric_slide/generated/microduck_25_scene_1p2m.xml --spacing 1.2 --width 1920 --height 720 --view split --render electric_slide/generated/electric_slide_25_ducks_learned_split_front.mp4 |
| |
| Mux a locally owned or licensed copy of Candy without adding it to the repository: |
|
|
| uv run --no-project --with mujoco --with numpy --with onnxruntime --with imageio --with imageio-ffmpeg python electric_slide/physics_show.py --strict --render electric_slide/generated/electric_slide_25_ducks_with_audio.mp4 --audio C:\path\to\Candy.mp3 --audio-offset 0 |
| |
| Use --audio-offset to choose the section of the song. The default show length is |
| exactly 72 counts at 111 BPM. |
|
|
| ## Physics guarantee |
|
|
| After the initial keyframe reset, `physics_show.py` never writes a free-root |
| pose. Every visible translation and turn comes from actuator targets, ground |
| contact, and MuJoCo dynamics. The strict gate rejects falls, missing foot |
| liftoffs, excessive airtime, insufficient travel, unsafe spacing, or any |
| duck-to-duck contact. The diagnostics JSON is written beside each rendered |
| video. |
|
|
| For real robots, retain the 50 Hz observation/action contract and validate one |
| duck before synchronized deployment. The present spacing is a simulation-show |
| result, not a substitute for physical multi-robot safety testing. |
|
|
