Inference and Learning Group

We report work on a LEGO robot capable of displaying sev-eral emotional expressions in response to physical contact. Our motivation has been to explore believable emotional ex-changes to achieve plausible interaction with a simple robot. We have worked toward this goal in two ways. First, ac-knowledging the importance of physicalmanipulation in chil-dren’s interactions, interaction with the robot is through tac-tile stimulation; the various kinds of stimulation that can elicit the robot’s emotions are grounded in a model of emotion acti-vation based on different stimulation patterns. Second, emo-tional states need to be clearly conveyed. We have drawn inspiration from theories of human basic emotions with as-sociated universal facial expressions, which we have imple-mented in a caricaturized face. We have conducted experi-ments on children and adults to assess the recognizability of these expressions, and observed how people spontaneously interacting with Feelix respond to its emotional displays