Luxo Jr. - The Robotic Lamp (6-DoF Interactive Platform)

Inspired by Kevin Gene V. Gim’s robotic work, we built a 6-degree-of-freedom robotic lamp that explores expressive, perception-driven interaction through minimalist embodiment.

Instead of using a full bipedal configuration, this design adopts a single leg mechanism, mounted upside-down to achieve a naturally stable base while preserving rich motion capability.

System Overview

The entire system runs on ROS 2, deployed on a Raspberry Pi.

It integrates:

• A 3D depth camera for spatial perception
• A smart light bulb for expressive feedback This allows the lamp to sense its surroundings and respond in real time, transforming it from a passive object into an interactive agent.

Current Capabilities

At its current stage, the system supports:

• Hand detection
• 3D tracking

This enables the lamp to react to nearby human presence and movement.

Future development will focus on:

• richer sensing modalities
• more expressive and vivid motion responses

— pushing the system beyond functional robotics toward character-like interaction.

Don’t forget to check out this video demo!