Virtual assembly system for robot actor in performing art

Abstract

Recently, the robots are being used in the field of the performing art. The improved motion and cost reduction of the robots are drawing attention. In this paper, we propose an assembly system for the virtual robot actor based on 3-D virtual environment. The first goal of the proposed system is to provide functionalities on the virtual robot assembly, so the user can build his/her own unique virtual robot. The assembly of the virtual robot is based on the virtual motor parts having the specification (e.g., torque, weight, and available range) and appearance of the real motor part. During the assembly procedure, the purposed system estimates the maximum torque of the virtual motor parts based on the motor part properties. The second goal is to simulate the motion of the assembled robot, so the user can predict the motion of the real robot actor. In order to evaluate our system, two types of the virtual robot actors were assembled based on the real robot actors. A short sample of the motion capture data were applied to assembled virtual robot actors, and they showed the usefulness of the proposed system.