A Machine
Babyface
Making Meaning With Machines
Time to Compile

Robots and Dance: A Promising Young Alchemy

By A. LaViers
Counts of Mechanical, External Configurations Compared to Computational, Internal Configurations in Natural and Artificial Systems
Center-of-Mass Control for Expressive and Effective Movement in Bipedal Robots
Programmed Improvisation Inspired From Autonomous Humanoids
Breathing With Robots: Notating Performer Strategy, Alongside Choreographer Intent and Audience Observation, In Breath-driven Robotic Dance Performance
An Open Data Infrastructure for Bodily Expressed Emotion Understanding
Modeling the Interactions of Context and Style on Affect in Motion Perception: Stylized Gaits Across Multiple Environmental Contexts
Character Recognition on a Varied Robotic Platforms via a Laban Movement Analysis in Expert and Lay Groups
First Encounters with Robots Through Embodied Observation, Imagined Narrative, and Choreography
Controls and Art
Automatic Sequencing of Ballet Poses: A Formal Approach to Phrase Generation
Toward an Expressive Bipedal Robot: Variable Gait Synthesis and Validation in a Planar Model

Abstractions for Design-by-Humans of Heterogeneous Autonomous Behaviors

Written by A. LaViers, A. Bashiri, Y. Sheng, J. Heddy, and L. Bai
Style-based Robotic Motion in Contemporary Dance Performance
Babyface: Performance and Installation Art Exploring the Feminine Ideal in Gendered Machines

Automation Supporting Prolonged Independent Residence for the Elderly (ASPIRE)

National Science Foundation Award #1528036
Time to Compile: A Performance Installation as Human-Robot Interaction Study Examining Self-Evaluation and Perceived Control Through the Lenses of Movement and Technology Literacy and Valence
Imitation of Human Motion by Low Degree-of-Freedom Simulated Robots and Human Preference for Mappings Driven by Spinal, Arm, and Leg Activity
Ideal Mechanization: Exploring the Machine Metaphor Through Theory and Performance
Laban-Inspired Task-Constrained Expressive, Variable Motion Generation on Aerial Robots
Feasible Stylized Motion: Robotic Manipulator Imitation of a Human Demonstration with Collision Avoidance and Style in Increasingly Cluttered Environments
An Embodied, Platform-invariant Architecture for Connecting High-level Spatial Commands to Platform Articulation
Choreographic and Somatic Approaches for the Development of Expressive Robotic Systems

Can a Robot Do a Trust Fall? Absurdity as a Component of Human Intelligence and Embodiment

By A. LaViers and I. Vidrin
Toward Human-like Teleoperated Robot Motion: Performance and Perception of a Choreography-inspired Method in Static and Dynamic Tasks for Rapid Pose Selection of Articulated Robots
Motion-activated Wearable Robot for Live Dance Performance Investigating the Feminine Cyborg Metaphor

CURTAIN and Time to Compile: A Demonstration of an Experimental Testbed for Human-robot Interaction

Written by C. Cuan, I. Pakrasi, E. Berl, and A. LaViers
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A Machine

A Machine is a project that explores the fundamental nature of movement, computation, and expression. Born from attempts to define a motion primitive, the work is inspired by the observation that computation is defined (and created) through movement. The work produced papers that assert new fundamental limits on mechanization (creating plots analogous to those that revealed the trend in computation known as Moore's Law) and formulate platform-invariant motion primitives.

Amy LaViers performing `A Machine' in 2018 in the DRK at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in Urbana, IL. Photo credit: Natalie Fiol.

Publications

A. Bushman, M. Asselmeier, J. Won, and A. LaViers. “Toward Human-like Teleoperated Robot Motion: Performance and Perception of a Choreography-inspired Method in Static and Dynamic Tasks for Rapid Pose Selection of Articulated Robots” IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). 10219-10225. Virtual from Paris, France. 2020.

Y. Zhou, M.Asselmeier, and A. LaViers. “Toward Expressive Multi-Platform Tele- operation: Laban-Inspired Concurrent Operation of Multiple Joints on the Re- think Robotics Baxter Robot in Static and Dynamic Tasks.” 6th International Conference on Movement and Computing (MOCO). 15. Tempe, AZ, 2019.

A. LaViers. “Make robot motions natural: Humanoid machines should move and gesture more like us, argues Amy LaViers.” Nature. 565, 422-424. 2019.

A. LaViers. “Ideal Mechanization: Exploring the Machine Metaphor Through Theory and Performance.” Arts (Special Issue on Machine as Artist for the 21st Century). MDPI. 8(2), 67. 2019.

A. LaViers. “Counts of Mechanical, External Configurations Compared to Computational, Internal Configurations in Natural and Artificial Systems.” PLoS ONE. 14(5): e0215671. 2019.

A. LaViers. “Sure, it can backflip – but can a robot hold down a desk job?” Ed. Sam Dresser Aeon. Feb. 4, 2019.

A. Jang Sher, U. Huzaifa, J. Li, V. Jain, A. Zurawski, and A. LaViers. “An Embodied, Platform-invariant Architecture for Connecting High-level Spatial Commands to Platform Articulation.” Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS). 119, 263-277. 2019.

A. Nilles, C. Gladish, M. Beckman, and A. LaViers, “Improv: Live Coding for Robot Motion Design.” 5th International Conference on Movement and Computing (MOCO). 43. Genoa, Italy, 2018. (Extended Abstract)

A performer kneels among taped lines on the floor and foam cushions.
Amy LaViers performing `A Machine' in 2018 in the DRK at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in Urbana, IL. Photo credit: Natalie Fiol.

Performances

Premiere in DRK at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Urbana, IL

6th International Conference on Movement and Computing, Tempe, AZ

Collaborators and Funding

Showings of A Machine were supported by Reika McNish, Erin Berl, John Toenjes, Max Asselmeier, and Eric Minnick. The work was partially supported by DARPA Award #D16AP00001.

In the future, robots will be pervasive. Every­ thing will move — visibly, audibly and in a tactile way.... The diversity of robot movements needs to be expanded to include variable and com­plex motions.

from A. LaViers. “Make robot motions natural: Humanoid machines should move and gesture more like us, argues Amy LaViers.” Nature. 565, 422-424. 2019.

A figure of multiple links, coded with various shaded regiois and type-face, anatomical labels, e.g., distal_{ij}.
A new ``expressive'' method for robot description produced in A. Jang Sher, U. Huzaifa, J. Li, V. Jain, A. Zurawski, and A. LaViers. “An Embodied, Platform-invariant Architecture for Connecting High-level Spatial Commands to Platform Articulation.” Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS). 119, 263-277. 2019.