LaMoGen: Language to Motion Generation Through LLM-Guided Symbolic Inference

TL;DR

LaMoGen leverages a symbolic motion representation called LabanLite and large language models to generate interpretable, controllable human motions from language, addressing limitations of previous embedding-based methods.

Contribution

The paper introduces LabanLite for symbolic motion encoding and LaMoGen, a framework that uses LLMs for symbolic reasoning to synthesize linguistically grounded motions.

Findings

Outperforms prior methods on benchmark and public datasets.

Provides interpretable and controllable motion generation.

Establishes a new baseline for text-to-motion synthesis.

Abstract

Human motion is highly expressive and naturally aligned with language, yet prevailing methods relying heavily on joint text-motion embeddings struggle to synthesize temporally accurate, detailed motions and often lack explainability. To address these limitations, we introduce LabanLite, a motion representation developed by adapting and extending the Labanotation system. Unlike black-box text-motion embeddings, LabanLite encodes each atomic body-part action (e.g., a single left-foot step) as a discrete Laban symbol paired with a textual template. This abstraction decomposes complex motions into interpretable symbol sequences and body-part instructions, establishing a symbolic link between high-level language and low-level motion trajectories. Building on LabanLite, we present LaMoGen, a Text-to-LabanLite-to-Motion Generation framework that enables large language models (LLMs) to compose motion sequences through symbolic reasoning. The LLM interprets motion patterns, relates them to textual descriptions, and recombines symbols into executable plans, producing motions that are both interpretable and linguistically grounded. To support rigorous evaluation, we introduce a Labanotation-based benchmark with structured description-motion pairs and three metrics that jointly measure text-motion alignment across symbolic, temporal, and harmony dimensions. Experiments demonstrate that LaMoGen establishes a new baseline for both interpretability and controllability, outperforming prior methods on our benchmark and two public datasets. These results highlight the advantages of symbolic reasoning and agent-based design for language-driven motion synthesis.