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Distinguished Lecture by Professor Kazuhiro Kosuge, Hung Hing-Ying Distinguished Professor in Science and Technology (Dance Partner Robot and its Real-world Applications)

Oct 23, 2017

The Hung Hing-Ying Distinguished Visiting Professorship in Science and Technology aims to attract top academics in the fields of science and technology to spend time at HKU over a span of two to three years. Through a longer term of commitment, it is expected that teachers and students will have more opportunities to interact with world-class scholars, thereby enabling the scheme to create greater impact.

Professor Kazuhiro Kosuge of the Tohoku University is a leader in the world robotics community and very influential in Japan. His research covers most of the technical areas in robot design, control and planning, especially in the area of human-robot cooperation. He was appointed as Hung Hing-Ying Distinguished Professor in Science and Technology in 2016. The Faculty has invited Professor Kosuge to give a lecture on October 23, 2017 titled “Dance Partner Robot and its Real-world Applications”.

Professor Kosuge developed a dance partner robot, PBDR (Partner Ballroom Dance Robot) and was unveiled and gave dance demonstrations in EXPO 2005, Aichi, Japan. PBDR danced waltz as a female dancer together with a human male dancer. Professor Kosuge highlighted that one of the key research issues for the development of the dance partner robot was how to read the male dancer’s lead, or how to estimate the male dancer’s intention. He introduced RoboDANTE (Robot DANce TEacher), a dance instructor robot who teaches its partner how to dance based on the concept of Progressive Teaching. He mentioned that these robots, as research platforms for Physical Human-Robot Interaction (pHRI), have given us opportunities to reconsider issues relating to pHRI. Apart from the dance partner robots, PBDR and RoboDANTE, he also introduced a co-worker robot, PaDY, as an example of industrial applications of pHRI.

The lecture was well received and inspiring with full house attendance. For memories of the delightful moments of the lecture, photographs are available for downloading here.

 

Professor Norman Tien (right) presented souvenir to Ms. Belinda Hung (middle) for her support to the Faculty.

 

Professor Kazuhiro Kosuge gave a lecture titled "Dance Partner Robot and its Real-world Applications". 

 

Professor Norman Tien presented souvenir to Professor Kazuhiro Kosuge. 

 

Group photo.