The Tel Aviv Museum of Art hosted an installation by artist Ronen Sharabani — a complex video art piece that incorporated simple robotic arms based on Hugging Face SO-100 hardware. We were involved because we had one question: how does movement change the way people perceive a robot?
Organic vs. mechanical
We tested two modes of movement: mechanical (precise, linear, robotic) and organic (fluid, slightly imprecise, natural). The difference in how people responded was immediate and dramatic. Mechanical movement got attention. Organic movement got affection. The same robot, the same hardware, the same physical form — but visitors treated the organic-moving version like it was alive.
Kids petted them
That's not a metaphor. Children walked up to the robots and stroked them gently, the way you'd pet a cat. They talked to them. They attributed emotions to them — "I think this one is tired", "this one is looking at me." Adults weren't much different. They leaned in, lowered their voices, and treated the robots with a kind of tenderness that no one shows a smartphone or a smart speaker.
What this means for Muse
This is well-established in HRI research — organic movement creates a perception of life. But reading it in a paper and seeing it happen in a museum are very different things. Watching a child pet a simple robotic arm because it moved fluidly, or hearing an adult whisper to it — that's not a lab result. That's real. This is core to how Muse moves, responds, and exists in your space. Every gesture, every tilt, every response is designed to feel organic — because that's what makes you feel like you're not alone.