ROBOTS, ART, PEOPLE AND PERFORMANCE (RAPP) LAB
The Robots, Art, People and Performance Laboratory (RAPP Lab) is conceived as a living laboratory that functions as an experimental sandbox where roboticists and artists converge to explore the untapped possibilities of human-robot interaction through the lens of performance. Born from a spirit of curiosity, experimentation and play, this unique collaborative workshop space has evolved over the years with various public and private experimental performances and interactions.
Embodied AI on Stage: Co-Creating Physical Theatre with a Human–Robot Ensemble
International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR) + Art 2026
London, UK | July 1st, 2026
Exploring robots as improvisational partners in ensemble-based physical theatre through Vision-Action Models and established movement methodologies
What emerges when physically embodied artificial intelligence transitions from executing pre-programmed sequences to improvising alongside human performers? This experiential workshop investigates Vision-Action Models (VAMs), transformer-based neural networks that map visual observations of human movement to real-time robot trajectories, as enablers of improvised physical theatre within human-robot ensembles.
Building upon nearly a decade of RAPP Lab investigations, this workshop integrates physical theatre methodologies including Meyerhold’s biomechanics, Lecoq’s Tréteau theatre, and Anne Bogart’s Viewpoints to cultivate complicité (the moment-to-moment ensemble attunement essential to physical theatre) between humans and collaborative robots. Rather than treating robots as tools, participants explore them as co-creative partners capable of participating in socio-cultural expression through movement-based storytelling.
Through a structured progression from foundational physical theatre training to hands-on improvisation with a VAM-equipped collaborative robot, participants engage directly with questions of robot agency, collaborative improvisation, dramaturgical roles, and the implications of embodied AI in cultural contexts. No prior robotics or performance experience required; all bodies and abilities welcome.
This workshop is a collaboration across the University of Canberra’s Collaborative Robotics Lab, NIDA Australia’s Future Centre, Sheffield Robotics and Sheffield Creative Industries Institute at Sheffield Hallam University, the Embodied Agents in Contemporary Visual Art (EACVA) team at Goldsmiths University of London, and the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Part of the larger RAPP Lab 04 workshop series, with full multi-day versions planned in Canberra, Sydney, and London, it brings together research expertise, performance arts practice, and technical innovation to explore human-robot ensemble performance.
Venue: Workshop Room 1, University of London (ICSR Conference)
Workshop Format: Half-day (July 1st: 14:00-17:00)
Audience: Roboticists, embodied AI researchers, theatre artists, dancers, HRI scholars, designers, artists, and anyone curious about human-robot creative collaboration
Participation: Limited to 20 participants for substantial hands-on engagement
Registration: Please register your Expression of Interest (EOI) using the registration link above. Please note that this workshop is part of the ICSR conference and will require conference registration (at least a day pass). Details at the following link:
More details will be provided once your EOI is registered. Please reach out to Maleen.Jayasuriya@canberra.edu.au for any inquiries.
Workshop Committee
Dr. Maleen Jayasuriya
Collaborative Robotics Lab, University of Canberra
maleen.jayasuriya@canberra.edu.au
www.maleenj.com
Leads the Robot Intelligence research stream at the University of Canberra’s Collaborative Robotics Lab, specializing in embodied AI and explainable artificial intelligence. Interdisciplinary background spanning theatre, filmmaking, animation, and game development informs research investigating human-robot interaction and robotics as cultural practice, with focus on making physically embodied AI systems transparent and interpretable.
Piumi Wijesundara
Collaborative Robotics Lab, University of Canberra
piumi93@gmail.com
www.artsypooms.com
Theatre practitioner and artist-researcher specializing in physical theatre methodologies and ensemble-based storytelling, trained at East 15 Acting School (University of Essex) and Institute of Theatre Arts Moscow. International theatre credits across UK, Australia, Rwanda, and Sri Lanka. Resident artist-researcher at University of Canberra’s Collaborative Robotics Lab.
Prof. Damith Herath
Collaborative Robotics Lab, University of Canberra
damith.herath@canberra.edu.au
www.roboticart.org
Professor of Robotics and Art at the University of Canberra, leading the Collaborative Robotics Lab—an interdisciplinary, industry-led research group investigating HRI across diverse domains. Award-winning entrepreneur with 20+ years of experience in multidisciplinary and translational research in robotics. Prof. Herath has over a decade of experience organizing robotics and art workshops at major international conferences including ICSR, IROS, and ICRA, establishing foundational frameworks for arts-based robotics research.
Prof. David Cotterrell
Sheffield Creative Industries Institute, Sheffield Hallam University
d.cotterrell@shu.ac.uk
www.cotterrell.com
Research Professor of Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University. Installation artist working across media and technologies to explore socio-political tendencies through intersection and encounter. Extensive commissioning history across Europe, United States, and Asia, with particular interest in movement artists and embodied interaction.
Prof. Frederic Fol Leymarie
Goldsmiths, University of London
ffl@gold.ac.uk
www.folleymarie.com
Professor of Computing at Gold-smiths, University of London. Researcher in creativity and AI systems, specializing in artistically skillful robots, computer vision, and shape understanding. Programme leader for MSc Computer Games & Enter-tainment. Co-leads London Geometry consulting. Extensive publications on robotic drawing, calligraphy, and computational creativity at the intersection of visual arts and computing.
Ruhanie Perera
University of Colombo
Theatre practitioner and lecturer in literature and perfor-mance studies, Department of English, University of Colombo. Founding member of Floating Space The-atre Co., focusing on storytelling and creative encounters in Sri Lanka’s war and post-war context. Solo performances explore embodiment and lived experiences of women. Published in Choreographic Practices on memory and materiality in performance.
Dr. Daniel Berio
Goldsmiths, University of London
daniel.berio@gold.ac.uk
www.enist.org
Computational Arts Lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London. Researcher, programmer, and artist combining computer graphics, robotics, and graffiti art. PhD in computing focusing on computer-aided design and procedural generation of synthetic graffiti and calligraphy. Specializes in real-time hardware-accelerated rendering and vector graphics, ex-ploring algorithmic forms through graffiti writing aesthetics.
Dr. Samuele Vinanzi
Sheffield Hallam University
s.vinanzi@shu.ac.uk
web page link
Senior Lecturer in Robotics and AI at Sheffield Hallam University and member of the Smart Interactive Technologies (SIT) lab. Researcher in cogni-tive robotics, focusing on enabling social collaboration between humans and robots. Author of “In Robots We Trust”, a popular science book on human-robot trust, published by Oxford University Press.
Gavin Robins
National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA)
gavin.robins@nida.edu.au
www.gavinrobins.com
Senior Lecturer and Head of Movement at NIDA. Internationally acclaimed director of visual and physical theatre combining daring perfor-mance with emerging technologies including animatronics, automation, and aerial performance. Broadway credits include King Kong (Movement/Aerial Director, Special Tony Award recipient). Helpmann Award winner with large-scale production experience including Sydney Olympics Opening Ceremony.
Embodied AI on Stage: Co-Creating Physical Theatre with a Human–Robot Ensemble
RAPP Lab 04: Three-Day Intensive Workshop with the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) , Sydney, Australia | April 15–17, 2026
Investigating improvised human-robot physical theatre through Vision-Action Models, conservatoire movement training, and genuine interdisciplinary collaboration
What happens when physically embodied artificial intelligence stops executing pre-programmed sequences and begins responding, in the moment, to a human performer’s body? This three-day intensive workshop investigates exactly that question, placing a collaborative robot equipped with Vision-Action Model (VAM) capabilities — transformer-based neural networks that map real-time skeletal observations of human movement directly to robot joint trajectories — at the centre of a devised physical theatre process.
Building upon nearly a decade of Robots, Art, People, and Performance Laboratory (RAPP Lab) investigations, RAPP Lab 04 integrates physical theatre methodologies including Meyerhold’s biomechanics, Lecoq’s Tréteau theatre, and Anne Bogart’s Viewpoints to cultivate complicité — the moment-to-moment ensemble attunement essential to devised physical theatre — between human performers and a collaborative robot. Rather than treating the robot as a technological tool or scenic object, participants explore it as a genuine ensemble partner capable of improvising, responding, and co-authoring movement-based storytelling.
Across three days, twelve participants — six movement artists, three engineers, and three design students — work in cross-disciplinary groups through structured progression: from foundational physical theatre training and shared movement vocabulary development, to hands-on improvisation with the VAM-equipped cobot, to devised ensemble work culminating in an open work-in-progress showcase for invited stakeholders. The workshop also investigates a question unique to robot collaborators: what actor training insights emerge when performers work alongside an entity with no inner critic, no social expectation, and no fear of failure?
This workshop is the flagship iteration of the RAPP Lab 04 series and represents a collaboration between the University of Canberra’s Collaborative Robotics Lab and the Future Centre at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), with international research partners at Sheffield Hallam University and Goldsmiths, University of London. Facilitation brings together NIDA’s Head of Movement Gavin Robins (Special Tony Award recipient, Sydney Olympics Opening Ceremony) and Head of Props and Effects Marcelo Zavala Baeza alongside the RAPP Lab research team, integrating conservatoire expertise, cutting-edge robotics, and practice-as-research methodology.
Workshop Format: Three-day intensive
Cohort: 12 participants (6 movement artists, 3 engineers, 3 design students)
Working groups: Three interdisciplinary groups of four, each comprising two movement artists, one engineer, and one design student
RAPP Lab 03: Exploring Dramaturgical Potential in Human-Robot Ensembles (2025)
A Practice-as-Research Investigation through Devised Physical Theatre
Project Period: 2025
Location: University of Canberra, Australia
Team Members: Maleen Jayasuriya, Piumi Wijesundara, Damith Herath
Participants: Deni Dominguez Molina, Molly Yao, Michael Armstrong, Mia Rashid, Fi Peel, Sandy Ma, Imogen Yang, Annika Kendall, Chipz Jin, Marlene Radice
Technical Support: Elaine Peng, Nipuni Wijesinghe, Buddhi Gamage, Abhimani Gamage, Moneisha Thilakaratne, Asitha Wijesinghe
RAPP Lab 03 represents the third iteration of this initiative, exploring the dramaturgical potential of human-robot ensembles within devised physical theatre methodologies. Led by theatre practitioner Piumi Wijesundara, roboticist Dr. Maleen Jayasuriya, and Professor Damith Herath, this practice-as-research project examines how Meyerhold’s biomechanics and Lecoq’s Tréteau theatre techniques can serve as entry points for developing ensemble-based storytelling with the UR10 collaborative robot.
Research Focus
The investigation centered on four core research questions:
- How does complicité—the shared, moment-to-moment attunement essential to ensemble work—develop between human performers and a cobot?
- How applicable are Tréteau theatre and Meyerhold’s biomechanics as movement vocabularies for a human-robot ensemble?
- What spectrum of dramaturgical roles can a cobot inhabit—instrument, prop, partner, antagonist, narrator—and how do these roles shape narrative storytelling?
- How can we center underrepresented sociopolitical and cultural narratives in human-robot performance?
Methodology
The practice-as-research framework involved structured workshops with 10 performance artists and roboticists, documented through video, photographs, and participant feedback. The UR10 collaborative robot was selected for its built-in safety features and deliberately non-humanoid form, enabling exploration of diverse dramaturgical roles without anthropomorphic constraints.
Workshop Structure:
- Day 1: Meyerhold’s Biomechanics Block – establishing shared movement vocabulary through mirroring exercises, solo études, and tactile “freedrive” interactions
- Day 2: Lecoq’s Tréteau Theatre Block – exploring spatial constraints and confined physical storytelling within the robot’s operational workspace
Performance Outcomes
The devising process resulted in two original short performances:
“Unstitched”: A performance critiquing fast-fashion labor ethics, structured around three movement motifs—robot as laborer, consumer, and model—culminating in a deconstruction sequence.
“Goddess in the Machine”: Reimagining the South Asian myth of Kali’s birth, blending human-robot choreography to explore how the best of intentions can unleash unintended consequences.
Media
Performance Documentation:
Key Findings
Participants reported substantial complicité development (average score 4.2/5). Both biomechanics (4.8/5) and Tréteau (4.3/5) were recognized as valuable frameworks for ensemble-building, effectively transforming robotic constraints into creative opportunities. The UR10 displayed versatile dramaturgical roles, transitioning between performer and prop, with its mechanical identity accentuated in industrial narratives while mythological contexts facilitated richer dramaturgical exploration.
Publications
M. Jayasuriya, P. Wijesundara, and D. Herath, “Exploring Dramaturgical Potential in Human-Robot Ensembles: A Practice-as-Research Investigation through Devised Physical Theatre,” 2025 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Atlanta, USA, 2025.
RAPP Lab 02: Public Participation in Robotic Performance (2018)
Project Period: 2018
Location: CoLABS Festival, Sydney, Australia
Team Members: Damith Herath, Elizabeth Jochum
Building on the foundations laid by RAPP Lab 01, RAPP Lab 02 extended the Lab’s explorations into the public sphere. Presented during CoLABS, a festival of Art & Science in Sydney, this intervention invited the public to participate in the creative process actively. Participants were encouraged to perform alongside robotic platforms in an immersive and experimental environment, exploring the boundaries between human and machine agency in real time.
This participatory approach highlighted the role of audiences in shaping the future narratives of robotic performance, transforming spectators into co-creators of the experience. The intervention demonstrated the Lab’s commitment to democratic participation and community-led research methods in human-robot interaction.
RAPP Lab 01: Foundational Explorations (2017)
Project Period: 2017
Location: University of Canberra, Australia
Team Members: Damith Herath, Elizabeth Jochum
Featured Artists: Marian Abboud (Media Artist), Vicki Van Hout (Indigenous Choreographer)
RAPP Lab 01 embodied the ethos of open discovery and collaboration that would define the series. Artists Marian Abboud, a media artist, and Vicki Van Hout, an Indigenous choreographer, partnered with engineers to explore the interplay between movement, robotics, and cultural narratives.
These sessions culminated in an experimental public performance, where robots and humans shared the stage in an improvised, multilayered exchange of gesture and expression. The performance was followed by a discussion panel, providing an opportunity for artists, engineers, and the audience to reflect on the creative, ethical, and technical dimensions of the work.
This first intervention set the tone for RAPP Lab’s mission to foster deep dialogue and experimentation between disciplines and individuals, establishing the framework for future iterations.
Orpheux Larynx (2011)
The seeds of RAPP Lab were planted in 2011 with artist Erin Gee’s performance Orpheux Larynx, created during her residency at MARCS Auditory Laboratories, Western Sydney University, in collaboration with renowned artist Stelarc. This vocal work for three artificial voices and soprano embodied a radical exploration of human-robot interaction, blending music, technology, and mythology.
Central to the piece was Stelarc’s Prosthetic Head, a computerised conversational agent whose manipulated baritone voice formed the basis of a robotic choir. Drawing inspiration from the myth of Orpheus, the performance reimagined identity and embodiment as fluid and multiplicitous, seamlessly merging past, present, and speculative futures through the shared voices of robotic avatars.
Articulated Head - CLONE (2012)
Another pivotal inspiration was Articulated Head – CLONE 2012, a hybrid virtual-real performance created by Pyewacket Kazyanenko in collaboration with Daniel Mounsey, Ian Upton, and Ze Moo at the Powerhouse Museum. Centered around Stelarc’s Articulated Head, this performance explored the dynamic interplay between physical and virtual worlds, pushing the boundaries of human-robot interaction in performance spaces.
These projects, with their shared emphasis on mythology, embodiment, and the performative potential of robotics, laid the conceptual groundwork for RAPP Lab, inspiring the Lab’s ongoing transdisciplinary exploration of robotic performance, cultural ecologies, and the evolving narratives of human-machine collaboration.