Exploring the Interaction Kinesics of a Soft Social Robot

Abstract

In this pilot study, we explore the kinesics of a non-humanoid pneumatically actuated soft robot developed for social human-robot interaction (HRI). The robot uses motion and gesture to communicate: it can tilt; expand; and perform movements reminiscent of breathing. To explore the robot's kinesics, we hand-coded 8 movement presets intended to represent a specific action, internal state/emotion, or pattern of motion: greeting; avoid; breathless; joyful; alarming; jellyfish; frighten; sigh. We then conducted an online survey where participants (N=59) chose words to describe their perception of each preset behavior. Semantic analysis of word choices indicates that the intended meaning was conveyed to users for most of the presets. Analysis of the general comments with text mining techniques showed that the robot was perceived as resembling an animal-like sea creature or a human body part (lungs, belly, or heart) and as communicating distinct emotional states. The results indicate that it is possible to communicate with a user solely through soft robotic movement, and suggest that soft robotics has applications within the design of affective interfaces and social robotics.

Signalling Emotions with a Breathing Soft Robot

“…In all presets, inflation of the top chamber was offset to initiate when 40of the total inflation time of the bottom chambers in a breathing sequence had passed. Other more varied movement presets with independent inflation of all 4 chambers have been studied in forthcoming work [26]. In the survey, participants were shown multiple videos of the robot and could watch each video as many times as they liked, to ensure proper observation before providing their ratings on the SAM scale.…”

Comparing How Soft Robotic Tentacles and an Equivalent Traditional Robot are Described

“…It has also been demonstrated that specific emotional states (including arousal and pleasure) can be communicated to a human user by having a soft robot perform breath-like motions at different frequencies [11]. Similarly, in [4] it was shown that a pneumatically actuated soft robot could convey specific emotional states, actions, and patterns to users through its movement and gestures. Furthermore, the researchers found that their soft social robot was perceived as animal-like, resembling a sea creature or as similar to specific body parts and organs (lungs, heart, belly).…”

Sprout: Designing Expressivity for Robots Using Fiber-Embedded Actuator

“…Recently, several HRI studies explored the creation of novel robot expressions using silicone-based materials [11,15,18,21,28,29]. Hu and Hoffman [15] developed a pneumatically actuated skin for robots expressing emotions by changing the robot's skin (i.e., goosebumps and spikes), which can serve as both visual and haptic cues.…”

“…Participants described twist as a reaction to unexpected objects (25) appearing or sounds heard near the robot's side, such as "a noise" or "something moving by." Participants also interpreted twist as a reaction to the presence of others in the same room (11), e.g., either of someone who "walked into the room" or "[left] the room. "…”