Meet Apple's Adorable, Pixar-Esque Robot Lamp

Yahoo

08-03-2025

Pixar's movies wouldn't be the same without the intro featuring Luxo Jr., the charismatic desk lamp who hops onto the capital I in PIXAR as the animation studio's production logo unspools. While Luxo Jr. is a digital character, a team of researchers at Apple has created a real-world robot that looks just like the Pixar mascot has come to life.
The robotics scientists and engineers detailed the project in a paper shared to Apple's Machine Learning Research site in January under the topic "Human-Computer Interaction". The post summarizes the research and includes an eye-catching video of the robot desk lamp in action.
The prototype robot shows off a variety of behaviors. It knocks over some wooden blocks like a naughty cat. It follows a book around as it's moved so that it always shines light on the pages. It reacts to a person who's waving at it to show it where to turn. It behaves more like a cute and helpful pet than a cold and calculating robot.
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The paper, called ELEGNT: Expressive and Functional Movement Design for Non-anthropomorphic Robot, is available on arXiv. This open-access research archive hosts studies prior to peer review and publication in journals. The paper details a framework for making nonhuman robots both engaging and utilitarian.
The researchers designed six different task scenarios to see how users react to a robot that behaves in a purely functional manner versus a robot that behaves in an expressive manner — like how Luxo Jr. comes across on screen. The contrast is notable. In a task requiring the robot to light an object for photography, the functional machine primarily holds still, only moving in direct response to user input. The expressive robot sways its lampshade and appears to "look" at the user as it responds.
In another task, the robot fields the question, "How is the weather today?" The expressive robot looks out the window as if checking the conditions before answering. Its motions and responses evoke a sense of emotion despite its lack of a human or animallike face. It's endearing, while the functional robot comes off as a stoic tool.
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Nearly two dozen participants watched videos of the robot completing tasks and rated their perception of the robot and its interaction with the person in the video. The paper found "that expression-driven movements significantly enhance user engagement and perceived robot qualities." The positive perception was especially strong with social-oriented tasks related to entertainment and conversations.
The desk lamp form for the prototype was a deliberate choice. The researchers gave a shout-out to the 1986 Pixar Luxo Jr. short film that features the now-iconic desk lamp playing with a ball under the watchful eye of a bigger desk lamp that acts as a parental figure.
"Although primarily appliance-like, it incorporates subtle anthropomorphic elements — such as the lamp head and the arm connecting the head to the stand — that evoke the appearance of a head and neck," the team wrote.
Apple may be known for phones, computers and apps, but it's eyeing big moves into the home robotics space, according to a Bloomberg report last year. It could be a natural move for the tech giant, which has invested heavily in AI and introduced Apple Intelligence into iOS. Home robots could open a new avenue for hardware sales while leveraging the company's work in AI and machine learning.
Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the lamp robot.
The paper is a peek behind the curtains at a direction Apple could go in with home robots. This robot lamp isn't just a lump of metal and plastic. It's more like a buddy than a machine.