Increasing Torso Contact: Comparing Human-Human Relationships and Situations

Since building relationships between humans and robots continue to increase, the importance of touch interactions between humans and social robots is also growing. However, due to such limitations such as robot performance, most of these robots perform touch interaction with specific motions. In human-human touch interaction, the touch method reflects relationships and situations. This study investigates how touch interactions reflect relationships and situations with others to obtain the design guidelines for touch interactions for social robots. We experimentally investigated how participants performed touch interactions with a mannequin. Our participants performed touch interactions in three specific situations (consoling/forgiving/sharing happiness) with a partner of a three specific intimacy (intimate/acquaintance/ stranger). We analyzed their touch behaviors. When the relationship was intimate, many participants touched the mannequin's torsos in every situation. This touch motion decreased as the intimacy level with others reduced, and a touching motion with both hands or just one increased.

Automated summary

The study found that touch interactions between humans and social robots reflect relationships and situations, with more direct touch indicating closer relationships and more subtle touch for unfamiliar relationships.