Robotic gesture generation based on a cognitive basis for non-verbal communication

This paper introduces a semantic synthesis method that enables robots to generate human-like gestures by recognizing cognitive and emotional behaviors based on a given situation. Assuming that the human cognitive process is represented as a series of associated events, we proposed a virtually touchable space associated with robotic hands. Additionally, in a humanoid robot, the motions of two arms are considered as a crucial non-verbal communication channel because large spatial changes capture the attention of a human agent. Additionally, virtual spaces related to certain events are described by robotic hands. The concept of virtual spaces is tested with regard to the expression of the robot´s cognitive process with a combination of predefined motion sets.