This is the result of session 3 in my course on Social Robot Design (2025/2026). The content of this session was mainly about robot expressivity. We got to play around with an SO-101 robot from huggingface where we utilized a program called TouchDesigner to manage the expressions. It is an intuitive software with drag and drop UI, a picture is shown below.

This was done with:

  • Liz van Ginderen (s27349745)
  • Anna Hornman (s3056600)
  • Oyindrila Sen Gupta (s3697762)
  • Sarah Mans (s2306379)

Touchdesigner

touchdesigner

Picture of setup

setup

Assignment 1: Getting the robot to work

The first step was to make the robot work and connect the software. This was straightforward. Then we just played around with the buttons to make ourselves familiar with the software.

Assignment 2: Scaffolding

The goal here was to play a preconfigured motion, but with added expressiveness with “breathing” behavior. We tried multiple variations where they differed in aggressiveness.

Different aggressiveness:

With breathing:

Assignment 3: Recording

Now we can make our own sequence! In this assignment we recorded our own sequence and played it back.

Recording:

Assignment 4: Retargeting

In the last assignment we want to control the robot while it’s carrying out a sequence.

Recording with retargeting:

Small project

In this small project we act out a small scenario: The robot lazily wakes up, notices an object in front, and approaches it to take a closer look. The robot is startled and it backs away in fear from the object.

Small project show:

Small project carry out: