End-User Puppeteering of Expressive Movements

TL;DR

This paper introduces a puppeteering interface for social robots that enables users, even novices, to intuitively program expressive movements through real-time manipulation and feedback.

Contribution

It presents a novel puppeteering interface that simplifies programming expressive robot movements, improving accessibility for non-expert users.

Findings

Users can efficiently design expressive movements with minimal training

Real-time replication provides immediate visual feedback

Preliminary user study shows promising usability

Abstract

The end-user programming of social robot behavior is usually limited by a predefined set of movements. We are proposing a puppeteering robotic interface that provides a more intuitive method of programming robot expressive movements. As the user manipulates the puppet of a robot, the actual robot replicates the movements, providing real-time visual feedback. Through this proposed interface, even with limited training, a novice user can design and program expressive movements efficiently. We present our preliminary user study results in this extended abstract.