Development of Face Robot for Emotional Communication between Human and Robot

The purpose of this study is to develop the interactive communication system that communicate with human beings emotionally such as a human-friendly robot in an environment where human and robot coexist. The face and its expressions are crucial for communication, so we have been developing a face robot using McKibben type pneumatic actuator to display facial expressions. And it has a human-like face and can express facial expressions similar to human beings. In this study, we show the development of the new type face robot and new head motion mechanism. Then we show how to build the face robot, and show the improvement of action unit's (AU's) movements against former face robot. We also show basic ability for expressing facial expressions. In addition, we describe how to develop the new neck mechanism for realizing human-like head motion. Then we show humanity of nod by the new neck mechanism