How to Touch Humans: Guidelines for Social Agents and Robots That Can Touch

Touch is an essential channel in interpersonal and affective communication, yet most social agents currently lack the capability to touch the user. In this paper we show the credibility of three premises that make the case that providing touch capability to social robots will increase their effectiveness in communicating emotions, building trust and achieving behavioral changes. The first premise is that humans can communicate distinct emotions through touch only, the second is that this is also possible through mediated (virtual) touch, and the third is that social agents can use the same mediated touch technology as effectively as humans. Based on a literature review, we also formulate ten design rules as guidance for the development of social agents that can touch. These rules concern parameters that regulate the meaning of touch cues like context and familiarity, the implicit and explicit meanings of touch, user characteristics, and parameters that can be communicated through affective touch.