Animatronic robots aim to enable natural human-robot interaction through lifelike facial expressions. However, generating realistic, speech-synchronized robot expressions is challenging due to the complexities of facial biomechanics and responsive motion synthesis. This paper presents a principled, skinning-centric approach to drive animatronic robot facial expressions from speech. The proposed approach employs linear blend skinning (LBS) as the core representation to guide tightly integrated innovations in embodiment design and motion synthesis. LBS informs the actuation topology, enables human expression retargeting, and allows speech-driven facial motion generation. The proposed approach is capable of generating highly realistic, real-time facial expressions from speech on an animatronic face, significantly advancing robots' ability to replicate nuanced human expressions for natural interaction.

翻译：动画机器人旨在通过逼真的面部表情实现自然的人机交互。然而，由于面部生物力学复杂性以及响应式运动合成的挑战，生成与语音同步的逼真机器人表情仍面临困难。本文提出了一种基于蒙皮原理的严谨方法，用于从语音驱动动画机器人面部表情。该方法以线性混合蒙皮（LBS）作为核心表征，引导设备设计及运动合成的紧密集成创新。LBS可指导驱动拓扑结构，实现人类表情的重新映射，并支持语音驱动的面部运动生成。所提方法能通过动画机器人面部从语音实时生成高度逼真的表情，显著提升了机器人复现人类细微表情以实现自然交互的能力。