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Character Design and Validation on Aerial Robotic Platforms Using Laban Movement Analysis

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Social Robotics (ICSR 2018)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 11357))

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Abstract

Exploring the application of aerial robots in human-robot interaction is a currently active area of research. One step toward achieving more natural human-robot interactions is developing a method in which an aerial robot successfully portrays a character or exhibits character traits that a human can recognize. Recognizable character types are conveyed through movement in many performing arts, including ballet. However, past work has not leveraged the movement expertise of ballet dancers to create a method and portray complex characters on low-degree-of-freedom aerial robots. This paper explores the recognition and differentiation of archetypal characters used in classical ballet using Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) and applies the results from tracking the movements to an aerial robotic platform. Movement sequences were created on a Bebop Drone to emulate these character types. This process was subsequently validated by a user study, highlighting the successful application of state recognition through movement on aerial robots. Such work can be used to create robots with recognizable movement signatures for quick identification by human counterparts in social settings.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We will capitalize these terms to indicate they do not align exactly with colloquial notions of each of these words.

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Acknowledgement

This work was conducted under IRB #16225 and supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grants #1528036 and #1701295.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mechanical Science and Engineering Department, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    Alexandra Bacula & Amy LaViers

Authors
  1. Alexandra Bacula
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  2. Amy LaViers
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alexandra Bacula .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Shuzhi Sam Ge

  2. Qatar University, Doha, Qatar

    John-John Cabibihan

  3. University Carlos III de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Miguel A. Salichs

  4. Canterbury University, Auckland, New Zealand

    Elizabeth Broadbent

  5. Wichita State University, Wichita, KS, USA

    Hongsheng He

  6. The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Alan R. Wagner

  7. Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Álvaro Castro-González

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Bacula, A., LaViers, A. (2018). Character Design and Validation on Aerial Robotic Platforms Using Laban Movement Analysis. In: Ge, S., et al. Social Robotics. ICSR 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11357. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05204-1_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05204-1_20

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-05203-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-05204-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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