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About

Amy LaViers is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of robotics, movement science, and performing arts, whose work has fundamentally reshaped how we think about expressive motion in robotic systems. Drawing heavily from classical ballet and contemporary dance, LaViers developed innovative frameworks for encoding aesthetic style and dynamic quality into robotic movement, most notably through her early work on automatic sequencing of ballet poses and style-based motion generation, which together have accumulated over 100 citations. Her research demonstrated that formal movement languages — such as ballet grammar — could serve as rigorous computational specifications for cyber-physical systems, bridging artistic practice and engineering methodology. LaViers has made substantial contributions to human-robot interaction by investigating how context, style, and character archetypes shape the way humans perceive and trust robotic systems. Her choreographic and somatic approaches to expressive robot design have influenced how researchers consider embodiment and movement quality in human-facing robotic applications. Beyond the laboratory, she extends her inquiry into live performance, as demonstrated by her provocative wearable robotics piece *Babyface*, which critically examines gender and technology. With over 270 cumulative citations, LaViers stands as a distinctive voice advocating for humanistic, artistically informed approaches to robot design.