“Spread Your Wings: Demonstrating a Soft Floating Robotic Avatar with Flapping Wings for Novel Physical Interactions” by Xu, Ju, Zhang, Kim, Gao, et al. …
Conference:
Experience Type(s):
Title:
- Spread Your Wings: Demonstrating a Soft Floating Robotic Avatar with Flapping Wings for Novel Physical Interactions
Organizer(s)/Presenter(s):
- Mingyang Xu
- Yulan Ju
- Qing Zhang
- Christopher Changmok Kim
- Qingyuan Gao
- Yun Suen Pai
- Giulia Barbareschi
- Matthias Hoppe
- Kai Kunze
- Kouta Minamizawa
Interest Areas(s):
- New Technologies
Description:
We demonstrate a new robotic avatar concept in which pilots can embody a fish-like form, “swimming” through indoor spaces to interact, play, and accompany others remotely. Our soft flapping-wing floating avatar offers three merits: (1) The soft body and blade-free design enable safe, close-proximity flight around people; (2) The wings not only provide propulsion but also serve as a medium for physical interaction, allowing affective gestures such as hugs, shoulder pats, and high-fives; and (3) The bioinspired design provides a more organic and lifelike movement compared to propeller-based avatars, potentially enhancing the sense of presence and evoking a feeling of interacting with a living creature. Furthermore, by mimicking the flapping flight of birds, pilots can control the avatar through body movements, while engaging in interactions with others through the avatar’s soft body and wings. This work opens new possibilities for telepresence and introduces a wing-based approach to remote physical interactions.
References:
[1] Shino Higuchi and Hiromasa Oku. 2021. Wide angular range dynamic projection mapping method applied to drone-based avatar robot. Advanced Robotics 35, 11 (2021), 675–684.
[2] Jiyeon Seo, Hajin Lim, Bongwon Suh, and Joonhwan Lee. 2024. I feel being there, they feel being together: Exploring How Telepresence Robots Facilitate Long-Distance Family Communication. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery, 1–18.
[3] Hiroaki Tobita, Shigeaki Maruyama, and Takuya Kuji. 2011. Floating avatar: blimp-based telepresence system for communication and entertainment. In ACM SIGGRAPH 2011 Emerging Technologies. Association for Computing Machinery, 1–1.
[4] Mingyang Xu, Jiayi Shao, Yulan Ju, Ximing Shen, Qingyuan Gao, Weijen Chen, Qing Zhang, Yun Suen Pai, Giulia Barbareschi, Matthias Hoppe, et al. 2025. Cuddle-Fish: Exploring a Soft Floating Robot with Flapping Wings for Physical Interactions. arXiv preprint arXiv:https://arXiv.org/abs/2504.01293 (2025).
