Social Robot Haru

Social Robot Haru

Haru is a socially expressive tabletop robot developed by Honda Research Institute Japan to explore how robots can support meaningful human interaction. Designed with rich, nuanced behaviors, such as gaze, body movement, and expressive eyes, Haru communicates not just through words, but through subtle nonverbal cues that make interactions feel natural and engaging.

Rather than acting as a traditional assistant or tool, Haru functions as an embodied social mediator. It facilitates conversations, encourages participation, and helps create inclusive and emotionally supportive interaction spaces. This makes it particularly effective in settings such as education, cross-cultural communication, and healthcare.

Haru integrates multimodal perception, including speech, facial expressions, and group dynamics, with AI models to respond to human in real time. Its architecture enables adaptive interaction, allowing it to adjust its role, from facilitator to companion, depending on the context.

Ultimately, Haru is designed to foster connection: helping people communicate more openly, collaborate more effectively, and engage with one another.

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  • Organization
    Honda Research Institute Japan Co., Ltd.
  • Profession
    Expressive robot creating joyful human connections
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