Communicating simulated emotional states of robots by expressive movements

This research focuses on the non-verbal communication of non-android robots by comparing the results produced by three different emotional models: Russell’s circumplex model of affect, Tellegen-Watson-Clark model and PAD scale. The relationship between the motion of the robot and the perceived emotion is developed. The motion parameters such as velocity and acceleration are changed systematically to observe the change in the perception of affect. The embodiment is programmed to adopt the smooth human motion profile of the robot in contrast to the traditional trapezoidal velocity profile. From the results produced it can be concluded that the emotions perceived by the user is the same on all three scales, validating the reliability of all the three emotional scale models and also of the emotions perceived by the user. Moreover the selected motion parameters of velocity and acceleration are linked with the change of perceived emotions.