The Practice of Animation in Robotics

Abstract

Robot animation is a new form of character animation that extends the traditional process by allowing the animated motion to become more interactive and adaptable during interaction with users in real-world settings. This paper reviews how this new type of character animation has evolved and been shaped from character animation principles and practices. We outline some new paradigms that aim at allowing character animators to become robot animators, and to properly take part in the development of social robots. In particular, we describe the 12 principles of robot animation, which describes general concepts that both animators and robot developers should consider in order to properly understand each other. We conclude with a description of some types of tools that can be used by animators, while taking a part in the development process of social robot applications, and how they fit into the rest of the system.