Robot motion design using bunraku emotional expressions – focusing on Jo-Ha-Kyū in sounds and movements

Robot motion design using bunraku emotional expressions – focusing on Jo-Ha-Kyū in sounds and movements:



Abstract


One of the UNESCO intangible cultural heritages Bunraku puppets can play one of the most beautiful puppet motions in the world. The Bunraku puppet motions can express emotions without the so-called ‘Uncanny Valley.’ We try to convert these emotional motions into robot affective motions so that robots can interact with human beings more comfortable. In so doing, in the present paper, we present a robot motion design framework using Bunraku affective motions that are based on the so-called ‘Jo-Ha-Kyū,’ and convert a few simple Bunraku motions into a robot motions using one of deep learning methods. Our primitive experiments show that Jo-Ha-Kyū can be incorporated into robot motion design smoothly, and some simple affective robot motions can be designed using our proposed framework.

Keywords: Motion analysis, motion design, Bunraku puppet, Jo-Ha-Kyū, deep learning


Additional information
Author information

Ran Dong
Ran Dong obtained his master's degree from the Graduate school of Systems and Information Engineering of University of Tsukuba in 2015. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the Computational and visual science lab, Graduate school of Systems and Information Engineering, University of Tsukuba, Japan. His research is centered on Computer Graphics and Human-Robot Interaction.

Yang Chen
Yang Chen obtained his bachelor's degree from the School of Optical-Electrical and Computer Engineering of University of Shanghai for Science and Technology in 2017. He is currently a master's student in the Computational and visual science lab, Graduate school of Systems and Information Engineering, University of Tsukuba, Japan. He is currently conducting research on Affective Robot Motion Design and Human-Robot Interaction.

Dongsheng Cai
Dr. Dongsheng Cai is a professor of computer science at the Faculty of Engineering, Information and Systems, University of Tsukuba, Japan. His research field is Computational science and Art media. The current research interests in Professor Cai 's group (the Computational and visual science lab) including: (1) Scientific Visualization; (2) Computer Graphics; and (3) Human-Robot Interaction.

Shinobu Nakagawa
Dr. Shinobu Nakagawa is a professor of the Art & Science Design Department, Faculty of Art, Osaka University of Arts, Japan. He is currently conducting research on Robot Design with traditional Japanese arts.

Tomonari Higaki
Dr. Tomonari Higaki is a guest professor of the Music Department, Faculty of Art, Osaka University of Arts, Japan. He is a composer, professor, researcher, acousmatic music performer and Ph.D. in design at Kyushu University, Japan.

Nobuyoshi Asai
Dr. Nobuyoshi Asai is a professor of Mathematical Foundation of Computer Science Laboratory, University of Aizu, Japan. He is currently conducting research on Numerical Analysis and Numerical Computation Software.