NAO Humanoid Robot Meets ChatGPT: Fusing Computer Vision, Speech Recognition, and Large Language Models to Create a Truly Understanding Intelligent Interaction Partner

This project integrates the NAO humanoid robot platform with the ChatGPT large language model, combining computer vision and speech recognition technologies to achieve three core functions: face recognition, natural dialogue, and autonomous dancing, demonstrating the future possibilities of multimodal human-computer interaction.

Traditional robot interactions are limited to a single dimension and are mechanically clumsy. With the maturity of computer vision, speech recognition, and natural language processing technologies, integrating multimodal capabilities has become key to natural human-computer interaction. The NAO robot is favored for its flexible joints and complete framework, while ChatGPT endows near-human language understanding and generation capabilities. The core of the project is to fuse the advantages of both.

A Finite State Machine (FSM) control architecture is adopted, with three mutually exclusive and switchable states:

1. Idle state: Real-time face detection (OpenCV), supports user registration and personalized greetings, listens for "Hey NAO" or "Dance NAO" to switch states;
2. Dialogue state: Speech-to-text → ChatGPT generates responses → speech synthesis and playback, enabling multi-turn context understanding;
3. Dance state: Executes pre-choreographed dance moves, returns to idle state after completion. Technical challenges solved: Asynchronous request optimization for real-time performance, modular design (vision/audio/AI modules), centralized FSM to ensure state consistency.

1. Face recognition: Scans in real-time in idle state, proactively greets registered users, prompts unregistered users to register;
2. Natural dialogue: Converts speech to text, calls ChatGPT to generate responses and synthesizes speech, supports multi-turn context dialogue;
3. Autonomous dancing: Executes pre-set action sequences when receiving commands or detecting music, returns to idle state after completion.

The project can be applied in:

• Education: STEM education platform to learn the principles of multimodal AI systems;
• Elderly care: Intelligent companionship, remembering preferences, daily communication, and dance entertainment;
• Exhibition halls: Intelligent guides, personalized services;
• Smart home: Control hub, voice control of home appliances + visual perception of family members' status.

Future expansion directions:

• Emotion recognition: Analyze facial expressions to adjust dialogue strategies;
• Personality customization: Customize robot personality;
• Gesture recognition: Enrich interaction dimensions;
• Cloud archives: Consistent experience across devices;
• AI choreography: Generate dance moves in real-time.

This graduation project demonstrates the potential of integrating existing AI technologies. When robots can "see", "hear", and "understand", natural human-computer interaction takes a step closer. The future development of multimodal large models will promote robots to become intelligent partners that understand emotions and build relationships.