Design and Development of a Humanoid Facial Robot Setup

Facial paralysis can occur from different conditions, the most common ones being Bell’s palsy and stroke. Bell’s palsy can result from different virus infections including herpesviruses, adenovirus, influenza B, etc. It affects close to 1.6million people per year worldwide [4]. Most of them completely recover spontaneously after a few weeks, but 4 to 14 percent of patients experience recurrence [7]. Treatments do exist but they consist of invasive transplant surgery [6], using part of the Gracilis muscle for example, which is a muscle linking the knee and the hip. To avoid these invasive treatments and their associated risks and drawbacks, we can imagine using artificial muscles as a less invasive and more cost-effective treatment. Artificial muscles have emerged as a promising avenue of research for the development of more realistic and expressive humanoid facial robots. In recent years, extensive research has been conducted to explore the feasibility of using artificial muscles as a viable treatment option, with promising results. The development of this technology has opened up new opportunities to improve the quality of life for people affected by facial paralysis. For this purpose, this project consists in creating a humanoid facial robot setup presenting the actuation of human expression.