MorphCubes

MorphCubes : Adaptive Modular Robots for Dynamic Remote Human Embodiment/人の身体性を遠隔地で表現する複数の環境ロボット型テレプレゼンスシステム

本研究では，環境にもともと存在する家具をモジュールロボット化することで，遠隔話者の身体性を等身大で表現し，存在感など豊かな非言語的コミュニケーションを実現する新しいテレプレゼンスシステムを提案する．このシステムは，移動や変形機能を有する複数の環境ロボットと動的プロジェクションマッピングを活用し，遠隔話者の胴体や手の動きを実寸で再現することで，あたかも現地に存在するかのような体験を提供する． 

This study proposes MorphCubes, a robotic telepresence system that metamorphoses modular furniture arranged in the local environment into coordinated modular robots, enabling the physical representation of a human-scale embodiment of a remote user. Each robotic module replicates the remote user's body parts and movements, such as arm gestures and head rotations, through its physical locomotions and adapted dynamic projection mappings. This facilitates richer non-verbal communication involving a full-body physical presence as if the remote user physically presents locally. Leveraging the modularity of the robots, the system offers sufficient flexibility in the body expressions and cost-efficiency as they revert to their original furniture rolls after the telepresence session ends. In this late-breaking work, we discuss the design and implementation of our proof-concept prototype system with three modular robots and show its potential and flexibility through representative application scenarios, including hybrid meetings, remote tactile communication, and collaborative work. 

[対外発表]

1. 志摩 幸隆，高嶋 和毅, 人の身体性を遠隔地で表現する複数の環境ロボット型テレプレゼンスシステム, 情報処理学会インタラクション2025 インタラクティブ発表（プレミアム枠）, 6 pages, webカタログ．

2. Yukitaka Shima and Kazuki Takashima. 2025. MorphCubes: Adaptive Modular Robots for Dynamic Remote Human Embodiment. In Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '25). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 406, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1145/3706599.3720114