Workshop ‘The Mechanics of Ensoulment: How Control Mappings Animate Social Robots’

At the International Conference on Social Robotics and Art (ISCR), 1-4 July 2026 in London, Dramaturgy for Devices organized the half-day workshop The Mechanics of Ensoulment: How Control Mappings Animate Social Robots.

This workshop explored how different control interfaces and mapping strategies shape the expressive and social qualities of robots. Focusing on live and manually operated systems, it examined how mediation through controllers and mappings influences timing, gesture, perceived agency, and presence.

Participants engaged hands-on with robots controlled through contrasting approaches, ranging from direct puppeteering-style mappings to standard engineering controls. Through guided exploration, expert demonstration, and short performative tasks, the workshop made the role of the human operator explicit and open to comparison.

The workshop brought together perspectives from social robotics, human–robot interaction, and performance-based practices, drawing on research conversations within the Dramaturgy for Devices (D4D) consortium.

The session combined:
* Conceptual framing
* Hands-on exploration of different control mappings
* Expert demonstration of expressive control
* Team-based remapping and short performance studies
* Facilitated reflection and discussion
* The structure is inspired by rehearsal-based methods from puppetry and performance, adapted for analysing robotic control and interaction

Eight robot arms, software, and tutorial material have been produced for educational use and the ICSR workshop. Earlier work on robot Ravi (controller mapping), Ravi+Pix+Dahlia (controller mapping space), Disney animation principles and robopuppeteering have been combined in the material created for this ICSR workshop. The Improvotype iDo robot is currently being used by students and researchers in University of Twente.