Animal-like Embodied Agents

This research investigates quadruped virtual agents, including dog-, cat-, and horse-like embodiments, for affective and persuasive human–agent interaction.

The work examines how species, body shape, movement, emotional expression, and social behavior influence users’ impressions, trust, engagement, and responses to persuasive messages.

Current Research Topics

Cross-species embodiment design
Emotional expression by quadruped agents
Persuasive communication
Social presence and trust
Movement and nonverbal behavior
Animal-like agents in VR and MR
Joint attention and spatial interaction

Representative Publications and Awards

Rio Harada and Kaoru Sumi.
“Persuasion through Motions and Emotional Expressions of Pet-Like Artifacts.”
JSAI Special Interest Group on Knowledge and Skills Transfer, 2023. (in Japanese)
JSAI SIG Excellent Research Award

Rio Harada and Kaoru Sumi.
“Persuasive Technology through Behavior and Emotion with Pet-Type Artifacts.”
In Persuasive Technology: 19th International Conference, PERSUASIVE 2024, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 14636, Springer, 2024.
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-58226-4_12

Kaoru Sumi and Rio Harada.
“Designing Persuasive Interactions with Pet-Type Virtual Agents: Effects of Emotion and Context in Mixed Reality.”
In Human Factors in Design, Engineering, and Computing, AHFE Open Access, Vol. 199, 2025.
DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1006912

Kaoru Sumi.
“Pet-Type Artifact That Promotes Behavior Change through Emotional Expression.”
In Affective Learning and Serious Games, CRC Press, 2026.
DOI: 10.1201/9781003782735-6

Concept image of an animal-like embodied agent used in virtual and mixed reality research.