University of California San Diego engineers have trained a humanoid robot to effortlessly learn and perform a variety of expressive movements. These include simple dance routines (from videos) and gestures that can range from high-fiving to hugging.
The robot movements are directed by a human operator using a game controller, which dictates speed, direction and specific motions. The team envisions a future version equipped with a camera to enable the robot to perform tasks and navigate terrains autonomously.
The team will present their work at the 2024 Robotics: Science and Systems Conference July 15 to 19 in Delft, Netherlands.
Citation: Xuxin Cheng et al. Expressive Whole-Body Control for
Humanoid Robots. UC San Diego. https://expressive-humanoid.github.io/resources/Expressive_Whole-Body_Control_for_Humanoid_Robots.pdf (open access)