[abstFig src='/00280006/10.jpg' width='300' text='Tabletop component-based Manzai robots' ] This manuscript describes a scalable tabletop Manzai robot system that has been developed using distributed software components. Manzai is a style of traditional Japanese stand-up comedy that is typically performed by two comedians – a stooge and a straight man. Manzai script refers to the dialogues exchanged between the two comedians. Manzai robots automatically generate their Manzai scripts from web news articles based on keywords provided by audiences and search results on the Internet. Then, the robots perform according to these Manzai scripts. This study focuses on the flexibility and scalability of a robot system based on distributed Robot Technology (RT) components. The results of the implementation experiments demonstrate the flexibility of the Manzai performing robots and the scalability of the functions of the robot system.

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