Physical contact using haptic and gestural expressions for ubiquitous partner robot

In this paper, we propose a portable robot to express physical contacts that are parallel to other modalities. It enfolds the user´s arm in its arms and tapping the user´s arm. The physical contact expressions are generated through a combination of several haptic stimuli and the robot´s anthropomorphic behaviors based on its internal state. The aim of our research is building a caregiver-like robot medium. The system was designed for gentle and delicate communication between the user and the robot during a user´s outings. The haptic stimuli express warm/cold, patting, and squeezing. Experimental results show that haptic communicative behaviors of the robot increase the intelligibility to the robot´s messages and familiar impressions to the robot.