Socially intelligent robots that understand and respond to human touch

Touch is an important nonverbal form of interpersonal interaction which is used to communicate emotions and other social messages. As interactions with social robots are likely to become more common in the near future these robots should also be able to engage in tactile interaction with humans. Therefore, the aim of the research presented in this dissertation is to work towards socially intelligent robots that can understand and respond to human touch. To become a socially intelligent actor a robot must be able to sense, classify and interpret human touch and respond to this in an appropriate manner. To this end we present work that addresses different parts of this interaction cycle. The contributions of this dissertation are the following. We have made a touch gesture dataset available to the research community and have presented benchmark results. Furthermore, we have sparked interest into the new field of social touch recognition by organizing a machine learning challenge and have pinpointed directions for further research. Also, we have exposed potential difficulties for the recognition of social touch in more naturalistic settings. Moreover, the findings presented in this dissertation can help to inform the design of a behavioral model for robot pet companions that can understand and respond to human touch. Additionally, we have focused on the requirements for tactile interaction with robot pets for health care applications

Potential of Exoskeleton Technology to Assist Older Adults with Daily Living

Mobility impairments can prevent older adults from performing their daily activities which highly impacts a person's quality of life. Exoskeleton technology can assist older adults by providing additional support to compensate for age-related decline in muscle strength. To date little is known about the opinions and needs of older adults regarding exoskeletons as current research primarily focuses on the technical development of exoskeleton devices. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to inform the design of exoskeletons from a human-centered perspective. Interviews were conducted with seven older adults and six healthcare professionals. Results indicated that exoskeletons can be a valuable addition to existing mobility devices. Accepting the need for mobility aids was found to be challenging due to associated stigmas. Therefore, an exoskeleton with a discreet appearance was preferred. Ultimately, the willingness to use exoskeleton technology will depend on personal needs and preferences

An Exploration of the Benefits of an Animallike Robot Companion with More Advanced Touch Interaction Capabilities for Dementia Care

Animallike robot companions such as robotic seal Paro are increasingly used in dementia care due to the positive effects that interaction with these robots can have on the well-being of these patients. Touch is one of the most important interaction modalities for patients with dementia and can be a natural way to interact with animallike robots. To advance the development of animallike robots, we explored in what ways people with dementia could benefit from interaction with an animallike robot with more advanced touch recognition capabilities and which touch gestures would be important in their interaction with Paro. In addition, we explored which other target groups might benefit from interaction with animallike robots with more advanced interaction capabilities. In this study, we administered a questionnaire and conducted interviews with two groups of health-care providers who all worked in a geriatric psychiatry department. One group used Paro in their work (i.e., the expert group; n = 5) while the other group had no experience with the use of animallike robot (i.e., the layman group; n = 4). The results showed that health-care providers perceived Paro as an effective intervention to improve the well-being of people with dementia. Examples of usages for Paro that were mentioned were providing distraction, interrupting problematic behaviors, and stimulating communication. Furthermore, the care providers indicated that people with dementia (would) use mostly positive forms of touch and speech to interact with Paro. Paro’s auditory responses were criticized because they can overstimulate the patients. In addition, the care providers argued that social interactions with Paro are currently limited and therefore the robot does not meet the needs of a broader audience such as healthy elderly people who still live in their own homes. The development of robot pets with more advanced social capabilities such as touch and speech recognition might result in more intelligent interactions, which could help to better adapt to the needs of people with dementia and could make interactions more interesting for a broader audience. Moreover, the robot’s response modalities and its appearance should match the needs of to the target group

Sketching CuddleBits: Coupled Prototyping of Body and Behaviour for an Affective Robot Pet

Social robots that physically display emotion invite natural communication with their human interlocutors, enabling ap- plications like robot-assisted therapy where a complex robot’s breathing influences human emotional and physiological state. Using DIY fabrication and assembly, we explore how sim- ple 1-DOF robots can express affect with economy and user customizability, leveraging open-source designs. We developed low-cost techniques for coupled iteration of a simple robot’s body and behaviour, and evaluated its potential to display emotion. Through two user studies, we (1) vali- dated these CuddleBits’ ability to express emotions (N=20); (2) sourced a corpus of 72 robot emotion behaviours from participants (N=10); and (3) analyzed it to link underlying parameters to emotional perception (N=14). We found that CuddleBits can express arousal (activation), and to a lesser degree valence (pleasantness). We also show how a sketch-refine paradigm combined with DIY fabrication and novel input methods enable parametric design of physical emotion display, and discuss how mastering this parsimonious case can give insight into layering simple behaviours in more complex robots

Observing Touch from Video: The Influence of Social Cues on Pleasantness Perceptions

In order to advance the understanding of affective touch perceptions, and in particular to inform the design of physical human-robot interactions, an online video study was conducted in which observed stroking touches were assessed on perceived pleasantness. Touches were applied at different velocities and either with a human hand, a robot hand, a mannequin hand, or a plastic tube. In line with earlier research, it was found that stroking touches with a velocity of ca. 3 cm/s were rated as most pleasant. Moreover, the subjective pleasantness scores suggest that the stimulus type interacts with the stroking velocity. The possible roles that social agency, expectations, and anthropomorphism may play in perceptions of pleasantness are discussed