Anthropomorphic Face Robot having Soft Mouth Mechanism with Embedded Artificial Facial Muscles

Abstract

Emotional facial expressions are powerful communication tools for humans. To utilize these facial expressions in human-robot interactions and social robotics, we developed an anthropomorphic face robot with a soft mouth mechanism. Realistic face deformation and amplified facial expression in cartoon characters requires a large range of motion in soft materials. To solve this problem, we developed a soft mouth mechanism for face robots with embedded artificial facial muscles. We measured the motions associated with human facial expressions with an optical motion capture system. We used a tiny artificial muscle actuator with a large range of motion. The face robot consists of soft actuators, a silicone mouth, and a dummy skull. We successfully generated eight basic facial expressions including lip puckering and dynamic mouth opening. Experimental results showed that the displacement achieved using the proposed soft mouth mechanism exceeded that observed in humans for several facial expressions and markers. This face robot with artificial facial muscles can enhance the development of communication robots in the field of animatronics