Facial Expression Design for the Saxophone Player Robot WAS-4

The implementation of strategies for intuitive and natural communication between robots and humans, depending on the specific situation, is becoming more and more important. Intuitive and human-like communication patterns for human-robot cooperation will ease communication cognitive load and allow the user to better focus on the task at hand. This work presents a basic facial expression system for a humanoid robot saxophonist, allowing the robot to change its expression during a musical performance to both send specific cues for synchronization to a partner human player, and also add emotional emphasis to the performance, as human players naturally do.