moviebot

MovieBot

A cinematography skill library for the MARS robot. The robot's 6-joint arm becomes a programmable camera crane, gimbal, and jib — controlled by a natural-language agent that translates director commands into physical camera moves.

Talk to it like a film director. It moves like a DP.

The Idea

The MARS robot has a 2MP RGB camera (1080p, 160° FOV, 30 FPS) mounted on the gripper of a 6-joint arm with ~40cm of reach. Instead of treating the arm as a manipulator, MovieBot treats it as a camera rig — a crane, gimbal, and dolly system that a director can command with natural language.

Director: "Give me a hero shot, low angle, circle them slowly"
    ↓
Cinematographer Agent (NLP → skill selection)
    ↓
orbit_subject(camera_tilt_degrees=-15, direction="ccw", duration_seconds=12)
    ↓
Arm positions camera low + angled up, base orbits subject in waypoints
    ↓
Raw footage → Runway/Veo video-to-video for final polish

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Director (human, natural language)                  │
└──────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘
                       │
┌──────────────────────▼──────────────────────────────┐
│  Cinematographer Agent                               │
│  Translates intent → skill calls                     │
│  Confirms framing, suggests post-processing          │
└──────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘
                       │
┌──────────────────────▼──────────────────────────────┐
│  Skill Library (15 skills)                           │
│  ┌─────────────────┐  ┌──────────────────────┐      │
│  │ ManipulationIF  │  │ MobilityIF           │      │
│  │ (arm = camera)  │  │ (base = dolly track) │      │
│  └─────────────────┘  └──────────────────────┘      │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                       │
┌──────────────────────▼──────────────────────────────┐
│  Post-Processing Pipeline                            │
│  Runway Gen-3 / Veo / Seedance                       │
│  Video-to-video style transfer + stabilization       │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Skills

Core Shots (7)

Skill	What It Does	Film Reference
orbit_subject	Circle a subject with camera locked on center at each waypoint	Avengers hero shot, Requiem for a Dream
orbit_smooth_arc	Continuous smooth arc (camera tangent, not locked)	De Palma's Carrie prom
dolly_in	Push toward subject — the emotional escalation shot	Jaws, Goodfellas diner, Spielberg realization
dolly_out	Pull back — the reveal, the ending, the abandonment	Gone with the Wind, The Searchers
static_frame	Tripod lockoff with optional slow drift	Kubrick symmetry, Ozu tatami, Wes Anderson
lateral_track	Side-to-side tracking for parallax depth separation	Oldboy hallway, Snowpiercer
kubrick_symmetrical	Dead-center one-point-perspective push	The Shining, 2001, Full Metal Jacket

Crane / Vertical (3)

Skill	What It Does	Film Reference
crane_up	Arm rises while pitch adjusts down — always available	Gone with the Wind wounded soldiers
crane_down	Arm descends while pitch adjusts up	Descending arrival shots
jib_swoop	Diagonal: arm rises while base drives forward	Fincher's signature jib

Advanced (4)

Skill	What It Does	Film Reference
whip_pan	Fast rotational blur as a transition	PTA, Edgar Wright, Kurosawa
reveal_tilt_up	Start on detail, arm tilts up to reveal full subject	Darth Vader boots-to-helmet
dolly_zoom	Physical dolly + post-processed counter-zoom (Vertigo effect)	Jaws beach, Goodfellas
oner_walk_and_talk	Multi-leg tracking shot with per-leg camera angles	Goodfellas Copacabana, 1917, Birdman

Effects (1)

Skill	What It Does	Film Reference
handheld_simulated	6-DOF arm micro-jitter for documentary/urgent feel	Saving Private Ryan, Bourne films

Hardware

Component	Spec
Camera	2MP RGB, 1080p, 160° FOV, 30 FPS, gripper-mounted
Arm	6 joints, ~40cm reach, Cartesian + IK control
Base	Differential drive, LiDAR navigation
Camera Feed	ROS2 topic /mars/arm/image_raw

Project Structure