Development and Control of a Face Robot Imitating Human Muscular Structures

When robots communicate with humans, expressions play an important role. This paper explains the design and prototyping of a facial expression robot which imitates human´s muscular structures. The feature of this robot is to create expressions based on a human being´s muscular structure. It is composed of three structures (the skin, the muscle, and the frame). The facial expression is generated with the contraction of the robotic muscle. The robotic muscle consists of a motor, wires and a urethane sponge. The robotic muscles are controlled based on human´s muscle activities to make natural facial expressions