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Production of Character Animation in a Home Robot: A Case Study of LOVOT

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Abstract

This is a case study focused on the development of LOVOT, a consumer home robot that went on sale in 2019. Since its unveiling in 2018, approximately 20,000 people have visited the LOVOT demonstration event as of the end of July 2019. In practical terms, LOVOT lives at home with the user long-term, similar to a companion animal; LOVOT performs continuous natural motion for user comfort. We applied movements using professional animator techniques based on the principles of traditional animation to LOVOT. We have identified specific practical techniques in home robot animation through iterative prototyping in our synergetic development of character animation techniques and tools. In this paper, we introduce our practical methods to develop many behaviors in a single robotic agent and is the collaborative efforts of a group of people with diverse professional backgrounds. Furthermore, we summarize how traditional techniques of character animation were applied, and new techniques were required from the perspective of professional animators.

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Notes

  1. Summarized explanations are adopted from Shultz et al. [11].

  2. For safety concerns, a LOVOT on the floor does not start touching users automatically.

  3. Because we intended that almost all behaviors be interactive, this is a special case in the development of the behavior of LOVOT.

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Acknowledgements

The LOVOT project consists of over one hundred people. We would like to thank other members who developed the behavior system and behaviors: Naomi Tanaka, Yuuki Takada, Taiji Fukaya, Kose Atsuya, Hideya Minamiji, Tsukasa Horinouchi, John Belmonte, Gonzalez Tineo Alejandro, Shundo Kishi, Megumi Ishikawa, Fumiya Fujinaka, Ariya Ishihara, Kyosuke Ichikawa, Kota Nezu, Takayuki Sasaki, Satoru Noguchi, Hironori Ogawa, Kohei Takada, Katsunori Waragai, Moto Endo, Junya Hayashi, Yoshiki Matsuura, Yong Yoonseong, Eishi Kuroda, Sayaka Inaba, Kohei Kawasaki, Yuma Mihira, Takuma Miyamoto, Kaname Hidaka, Naoto Yoshioka, and Masaya Matsuura. We would also like to thank additional acknowledgement every other member of the GROOVE X LOVOT project team. Finally, we thank four anonymous reviewers for providing constructive comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Freelance, Tokyo, Japan

    Masahiro Emoto & Kanji Kawai

  2. GROOVE X, Tokyo, Japan

    Naoto Yoshida, Shuto Yonemura, Naoki Numaguchi, Hiroki Nakazato, Shunsuke Otsubo, Megumi Takada & Kaname Hayashi

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  1. Naoto Yoshida
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Correspondence to Naoto Yoshida.

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Naoto Yoshida, Shuto Yonemura, Masahiro Emoto, Kanji Kawai, Naoki Numaguchi, Hiroki Nakazato, Shunsuke Otsubo, and Megumi Takada are employees of GROOVE X. Kaname Hayashi is the founder of GROOVE X.

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Yoshida, N., Yonemura, S., Emoto, M. et al. Production of Character Animation in a Home Robot: A Case Study of LOVOT. Int J of Soc Robotics 14, 39–54 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-021-00746-0

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