Apple experiments with lamp-like robot ELEGNT that uses ‘cute’ movements for better engagement

Apple’s Machine Learning Research team has released a paper and a video demo of a lamp-like robot called ELEGNT, which aims to work for users in a pleasing manner with the use of cute movements.

ELEGNT is meant to efficiently carry out its functions but while also responding to the use, being expressive, appearing to pay attention, and communicating intentions or emotions - despite not being a humanoid robot.

The paper, titled ’ELEGNT: Expressive and Functional Movement Design for Non-anthropomorphic Robot,’ is credited to Apple’s Yuhan Hu, Peide Huang, Mouli Sivapurapu, and Jian Zhang.

ELEGNT is shown carrying out a range of tasks, such as shining a light wherever needed, nudging a glass of water to the user, playing music, illuminating a moving object, and projecting visuals on a wall. However, it does not do so in an overly mechanical manner, but rather with small, engaging movements; think of the Pixar lamp robot that bounces up and down on the screen before a film begins.

In a provided video, Apple compared ELEGNT, which appears to nod in response to users and dances when playing music, to a similar robot that carried out its functions but with fewer or even no animated movements.

“Through a user study comparing expression-driven versus function-driven movements across six task scenarios, our findings indicate that expression-driven movements significantly enhance user engagement and perceived robot qualities. This effect is especially pronounced in social-oriented tasks,” stated a notice on Apple’s Machine Learning Research website.