Author Information
Tan Jui Hien, Nanyang Technological University, SingaporeRidhima Bector, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Domenico Campolo, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Bernhard Johannes Schmitt, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Abstract
Collaborative robots (cobots) constitute a class of robotic systems designed for safe, co-located operation with human users. Achieving effective and intuitive human-robot interaction (HRI) requires that cobots generate motion cues that are legible and semantically interpretable to non-expert operators. While engineering efforts traditionally emphasize control algorithms, motion constraints, and safety compliance, animation practitioners possess expertise in crafting expressive, human-readable movement that can inform more intuitive cobot behaviour design. However, most existing robot-animation workflows mathematically alter the animator-created motion to make it safely deployable onto physical robotic platforms, limiting the expressivity of the original motion design. To address this limitation, we developed a set of animation tools that enable an animator to directly design safely deployable expressive robot movements, grounded in two formal frameworks: Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) and Valence-Arousal-Dominance (VAD) model. These frameworks enable systematic mapping between movement qualities and perceived emotional content, providing a formal basis for expressive motion generation. The developed animator-centric tools can influence different aspects of the two frameworks and therefore facilitate animators in generating expressive motions for robotics systems. Each tool was evaluated using a tool-specific user study. Empirical results demonstrate that the tools helped decrease the number of adjustment iterations and improved the accuracy and consistency with which animators can design kinematically constrained cobot movements.
Paper Information
Conference: KAMC2025Stream: Arts Practices
This paper is part of the KAMC2025 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Hien T., Bector R., Campolo D., & Schmitt B. (2026) Animation Tools for Expressive Movement Design of Collaborative Robots With a Focus on Precision and Safety ISSN: 2436-0503 – The Kyoto Conference on Arts, Media & Culture 2025: Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 103-122) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2436-0503.2025.11
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2436-0503.2025.11
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