Development of koala robot capable of expressing various kinds of feelings

This paper describes the mechanism and the control system of a koala robot. It is extremely important for this kind of pet robot to be familiar with a human being. The robot can express various types of feelings by using body motions, eye motions, and sounds. It consists of 14 DOFs such as 2-DOF in the neck, and a 3-DOF in each leg. Its height is 233[mm], and its weight is 2.24[kg]. Several types of sensors and devices such as LED modules are attached to the head, the face, and the body to express many different types of emotions. Various emotional expression experiments were conducted and evaluated on the basis of questionnaires made by nineteen subjects. As a result, the effectiveness of the mechanism and the control of the robot were verified.