Open Access NAO (OAN): a ROS2-based software framework for HRI applications with the NAO robot

This paper presents a new software framework for HRI experimentation with the sixth version of the common NAO robot produced by the United Robotics Group. Embracing the common demand of researchers for better performance and new features for NAO, the authors took advantage of the ability to run ROS2 onboard on the NAO to develop a framework independent of the APIs provided by the manufacturer. Such a system provides NAO with not only the basic skills of a humanoid robot such as walking and reproducing movements of interest but also features often used in HRI such as: speech recognition/synthesis, face and object detention, and the use of Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) models for conversation. The developed code is therefore configured as a ready-to-use but also highly expandable and improvable tool thanks to the possibilities provided by the ROS community.