The eyes play a significant role in how robots are perceived socially by humans due to the eye’s centrality in human communication. To date there has been no consistent or reliable system for designing and transferring affective emotional eye gestures to anthropomorphized social robots. Combining research findings from Oculesics, Laban Movement Analysis and the Twelve Principles of Animation, this paper discusses the design and evaluation of the prototype LMA12-O framework for the purpose of maximising the emotive communication potential of eye gestures in anthropomorphized social robots. Results of initial user testings evidenced LMA12-O to be effective in designing affective emotional eye gestures in the test robot with important considerations for future iterations of this framework.

In this paper, we explore the storytelling potential of a robot. We exploit the use of creative contents that maximize the embodied communication affordance of the empathic robot Haru. We identify the elements in storytelling such as narration, agency, engagement and education and synthesized these into the robot. Through effective design we investigated the possible answers that could leverage the limitations and the challenges in developing storytelling applications through a robotic medium. Our preliminary findings show that the use of an embodied agent such as a robot in storytelling only has meaning when its communicative affordance (i.e. embodiment, expressiveness, and other modalities) is tapped, adding new dimension to the experience. Otherwise, traditional storytelling delivery (e.g. tablet) without the use of embodiment will suffice. Hence, robots need to be performers rather than just mere props in storytelling.

This paper discusses the design and development of an experimental tabletop robot called "Haru" based on design thinking methodology. Right from the very beginning of the design process, we have brought an interdisciplinary team that includes animators, performers and sketch artists to help create the first iteration of a distinctive anthropomorphic robot design based on a concept that leverages form factor with functionality. Its unassuming physical affordance is intended to keep human expectation grounded while its actual interactive potential stokes human interest. The meticulous combination of both subtle and pronounced mechanical movements together with its stunning visual displays, highlight its affective affordance. As a result, we have developed the first iteration of our tabletop robot rich in affective potential for use in different research fields involving long-term human-robot interaction.