Non-verbal communication is important in human interaction. It provides a layer of information that complements the message being transmitted. This type of information is not limited to human speakers. In human– robot communication, increasing the animacy of the robotic agent—by using non-verbal cues—can aid the expression of abstract concepts such as emotions. Considering the physical limitations of artificial agents, robots can use light and movement to express equivalent emotional feedback. This study analyzes the effects of LED and motion animation of a spherical robot on the emotion being expressed by the robot. A within-subjects experiment was conducted at the University of Tsukuba where participants were asked to rate 28 video samples of a robot interacting with a person. The robot displayed different motions with and without light animations. The results indicated that adding LED animations changes the emotional impression of the robot for valence, arousal, and dominance dimensions. Furthermore, people associated various situations according to the robot’s behavior. These stimuli can be used to modulate the intensity of the emotion being expressed and enhance the interaction experience. This paper facilitates the possibility of designing more affective robots in the future, using simple feedback.

Due to the limited pendulum motion range, the conventional one-pendulum driven spherical robot has limited driving capability. Especially it can not drive parallel direction with center horizontal axis to which pendulum is attached from stationary state. To overcome the limited driving capability of one-pendulum driven spherical robot, we introduce a spherical robot, called KisBot II, with a new type of curved two-pendulum driving mechanism. A cross-shape frame of the robot is located horizontally in the center of the robot. The main axis of the frame is connected to the outer shell, and each curved pendulum is connected to the end of the other axis of the frame respectively. The main axis and pendulums can rotate 360 degrees inside the sphere orthogonally without interfering with each other, also the two pendulums can rotate identically or independent of each other. Due to this driving mechanism, KisBot II has various motion generation abilities, including a fast steering, turning capability in place and during travelling, and four directions including forward, backward, left, and right from stationary status. Experiments for several motions verify the driving efficiency of the proposed spherical robot.