Haptic Intelligence

HuggieChest: An Inflatable Haptic Sensing Chest for a Hugging Robot

2019

Miscellaneous

hi

During hugs, humans naturally provide and intuit subtle non-verbal cues that signify the desired strength and duration of an exchanged hug. Personal preferences for this close interaction may vary greatly between people; robots do not currently have the abilities to perceive or understand these preferences. This workshop paper discusses designing, building, and testing a novel inflatable chest that can simultaneously soften a robot and act as a tactile sensor to enable more natural and responsive hugging. Using PVC vinyl, two microphones, and two barometric pressure sensors, we created an inflatable two-chambered chest that forms the torso of a hugging robot. One chamber is located in the front of the robot, and the other chamber is in the back. While contacting HuggieChest in several ways common in hugs (start hug, rub, scratch, pat, squeeze, release), we recorded data from the two sensors in each chamber. The preliminary results suggest that the complementary haptic sensing channels allow the robot wearing the chest to detect coarse and fine contacts typically experienced during hugs, regardless of where the user contacts the robot. We also verified that we can detect contacts regardless of noise from the robot’s movement, as long as the HuggieChest is inflated within a certain pressure range.

Author(s): Alexis E. Block and Katherine J. Kuchenbecker
Year: 2019
Month: November
Department(s): Haptic Intelligence
Research Project(s): HuggieBot: Evolution of an Interactive Hugging Robot with Visual and Haptic Perception
Bibtex Type: Miscellaneous (misc)
Paper Type: Workshop
How Published: Workshop paper (4 pages) presented at the IROS RoboTac Workshop on New Advances in Tactile Sensation, Perception, and Learning in Robotics: Emerging Materials and Technologies for Manipulation
State: Published

BibTex 

@misc{Block-IROSW-HuggieChest,
  title = {Huggie{C}hest: An Inflatable Haptic Sensing Chest for a Hugging Robot},
  author = {Block, Alexis E. and Kuchenbecker, Katherine J.},
  howpublished = {Workshop paper (4 pages) presented at the IROS RoboTac Workshop on New Advances in Tactile Sensation, Perception, and Learning in Robotics: Emerging Materials and Technologies for Manipulation},
  month = nov,
  year = {2019},
  doi = {},
  month_numeric = {11}
}