Program Overview

Program Overview

The University of Tokyo offers a unique course, GUC25S3132C | Making Robots Expressive: Design and Control, as part of its Global Unit Courses (GUC) program. This course is designed to explore the dynamic intersection of robotics, control, and human interaction, focusing on the principles and techniques essential for imbuing robots with the ability to convey moods, intentions, and social cues through expressive movements and behaviors.

About the Lecturer

The course is taught by Professor Gentiane Venture, a renowned expert in robotics with the Faculty of Engineering and a cross-appointed fellow with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science & Technology, Japan. Her research focuses on the dynamics of human, robots, and the environment, adopting a transdisciplinary approach to see robotics as an art of living together.

Course Details

• Subject: Making Robots Expressive: Design and Control
• Field: Engineering
• Key words: Kansei engineering; Robotics; Control Engineering; Affective computing
• Global Unit: 1
• Lecturer: Gentiane VENTURE
• Period: July 14 - 28, 2025
• Time: 13:00-14:30 (Japan Standard Time)
• Lecture style: In-person (on Hongo Campus)
• Evaluation Criteria:
  • Excellent (S) 90-100
  • Very good (A) 80-89
  • Good (B) 70-79%
  • Pass (C) 60-69%
  • Fail (D) 0-59%
• Evaluation methods:
  • Attendance/Participation 40%
  • Short assignments 20%
  • Final project 40%
• Prerequisites: No specific prerequisite necessary, but basic concepts of robotics, control, programming, and social psychology are welcome.

Course Contents

Purpose

Students who successfully complete this course will be able to understand the basic concepts behind making robots expressive (design and control), the methods to capture human affects using a variety of sensors and machine learning techniques, and to create ethical experiments involving human subjects in the framework of Human-Robot Interaction.

Description

The course delves into the principles and techniques essential for imbuing robots with the ability to convey moods, intentions, and social cues through expressive movements and behaviors. Students will gain a comprehensive understanding of the underlying algorithms and sensor integration required to achieve nuanced robotic expressions. Emphasis will be placed on the interdisciplinary nature of expressive control, incorporating aspects of control theory, artificial intelligence, computer vision, and biomechanics.

Schedule

1. Expressive movements
   • Theories of emotions
   • Expressive motions in the performing arts - Laban notation
   • Motion capture
   • Recognizing expressions in movements
2. Basic robot controllers
   • Null-space control
   • Optimal control and inverse optimal control
3. Using control to generate expressive movements
   • Null-space control
   • Optimal control
4. Other means to generate expressive movements
   • Variational auto-encoders
   • Overview of other methods
5. Evaluation of expressive movements
   • Qualitative approaches
   • Quantitative approaches
   • Conducting experiments
6. Final projects presentations

Assignments

Students will submit 5 short topical assignments (every two sessions) and a final global project. Assignments will be submitted in various forms depending on the needs of the class: 1-2min videos, presentation material, written documents.

Additional Information

• Required readings: None specified
• Reference readings: None specified
• Notes on Taking the Course: None specified

This course is part of the University of Tokyo's commitment to providing innovative and interdisciplinary educational programs that foster technical proficiency and thoughtful consideration of the ethical and societal implications of robotics.