Personality through faces for humanoid robots

Abstract

Empirical studies have shown the great extent to which a face characterizes personality. For this reason, among others, the face of a humanoid robot is paramount. In fact, a social contract exists between the robot and each human it interacts with. We present the design issues we have encountered in designing a face for the humanoid robot Cog. The dimensions, organic form and mechanical constraints must be worked out to attain our goals. Our implementation of the design process is novel with respect to our use of solid modeling and stereo lithography processes and has proven to be essential to our quest for an iconic human-like face.