Gesture motion programming by applying robot motion hierarchy structure for the educational/entertainment robot Engkey

Educational/entertainment robots are usually designed to perform various gesture motions for nonverbal communication or interaction with humans[1]. This paper proposed a robot motion programming methodology by applying three-level robot motion hierarchical structure and a gesture variation method that can easily apply emotional attributes (Joy, Normal or Sad) to a robot´s gesture. Experiments and evaluation tests are conducted with a graphical robot motion simulator and a real robot named Engkey, which is developed to carry out several tasks for interactive English education in elementary school or interactive games for elderly people.