A research group comprising Associate Professor Yoshihiro Nakata and Taisei Mogi from the Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering at The University of Electro-Communications (UEC), Japan, and Mari Saito of Sony Corporation has developed MOFU (MOrphing Fluffy Unit), a mobile robot capable of whole-body expansion and contraction. The group investigated how whole-body expansion-contraction affects perceived animacy, or the extent to which the robot is perceived as lifelike. In addition to expansion-contraction and locomotion, MOFU was designed with features including quiet operation and a soft, fluffy exterior. The study was published in PLOS ONE.
Whole-body expansion and contraction make a robot seem more alive
