Animatronic robots that simulate the lively and realistic motions of creatures can be excellent robotic platforms for social interaction with people. In particular, the robot head is a very important part of expressing various emotions and generating human-friendly and aesthetic impressions. This article presents Ray, a new type of audio-animatronic robot head. All the mechanical structure of the robot is built in one step by 3-D printing and has multiple layers expressing the overall shape of a human head and important features such as eyes, nose, mouth, and chin. This simple, lightweight structure and the separatetendon-based actuation system underneath allow for smooth, fast motions of the robot. We also develop an audio-driven motion generation module that automatically synthesizes natural and rhythmic motions of the head and mouth based on the given audio. The developed robot platform is used for various applications, for example, as a talking robot, robot singer, and robot MC. We expect this research opens up a new paradigm and application possibilities for minimally designed audio-animatronic robots.

中文翻译：

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最小化设计的音频电子动画机器人


模拟生物生动逼真的运动的电子动画机器人可以成为与人进行社交互动的优秀机器人平台。尤其是机器人头部，是表达各种情感、产生人性化和审美印象的非常重要的部分。本文介绍了 Ray，一种新型的音频电子动画机器人头部。该机器人的所有机械结构都是通过3D打印一步完成的，具有多层表达人头部的整体形状以及眼睛、鼻子、嘴巴和下巴等重要特征。这种简单、轻质的结构和下方基于肌腱的独立驱动系统使机器人能够平稳、快速地运动。我们还开发了一个音频驱动的运动生成模块，可以根据给定的音频自动合成头部和嘴巴的自然且有节奏的运动。开发的机器人平台可用于多种应用，例如说话机器人、机器人歌手和机器人MC。我们期望这项研究为最小化设计的音频电子动画机器人开辟新的范式和应用可能性。