Zheng Caroline Y, Wang Ker-Jiun, Wairagkar Maitreyee, von Mohr Mariana, Lintunen Erik, Fotopoulou Aikaterini
School of Communication, Royal College of Art, London, United Kingdom.
Division of Media Technology and Interaction Design, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.
Front Robot AI. 2024 Nov 29;11:1419262. doi: 10.3389/frobt.2024.1419262. eCollection 2024.
Human affective touch is known to be beneficial for social-emotional interactions and has a therapeutic effect. For touch initiated by robotic entities, richer affective affordance is a critical enabler to unlock its potential in social-emotional interactions and especially in care and therapeutic applications. Simulating the attributes of particular types of human affective touch to inform robotic touch design can be a beneficial step. Inspired by the scientific finding on CT-optimal affective touch - a gentle skin stroking at velocities of 1-10 cm/s evidenced to be pleasant and calming, we developed a proof-of-concept haptic rendering system - S-CAT, using pneumatic silicone soft robotic material to simulate the attributes (velocity, temperature and applied normal force) of CT-optimal affective touch. To investigate whether the affective touch performed by the S-CAT system elicits psychological effects comparable to CT-optimal, manual affective touch, we conducted an experimental study comparing the effects of CT-optimal versus non-CT-optimal stimulation velocities in each of three types of stimulation modes (S-CAT device, skin-to-skin manual stroking, hairbrush manual stroking), and across them. Our measures included subjective ratings of touch pleasantness and intensity, neurophysiological responses (EEG), and qualitative comments. Our results showed that velocity modulated subjective and neurophysiological responses in each and across these three stimulation modes, and that CT-optimal stimulations from S-CAT system and manual method received similar ratings and verbal comments on pleasantness, suggesting that the S-CAT touch can have comparable effects to manual stroking. We discuss the design insights learned and the design space that this study opens up to support well-being and healthcare.
众所周知，人类的情感触摸有利于社交情感互动，并具有治疗作用。对于由机器人实体发起的触摸而言，更丰富的情感功能是释放其在社交情感互动中，尤其是在护理和治疗应用中的潜力的关键因素。模拟特定类型的人类情感触摸的属性，为机器人触摸设计提供参考，可能是有益的一步。受关于CT最优情感触摸的科学发现的启发——以1-10厘米/秒的速度进行轻柔的皮肤抚摸被证明是愉悦和平静的，我们开发了一个概念验证触觉渲染系统——S-CAT，使用气动硅胶软机器人材料来模拟CT最优情感触摸的属性（速度、温度和施加的法向力）。为了研究S-CAT系统执行的情感触摸是否能产生与CT最优手动情感触摸相当的心理效应，我们进行了一项实验研究，比较了三种刺激模式（S-CAT设备、皮肤对皮肤的手动抚摸、毛刷手动抚摸）中每种模式下CT最优刺激速度与非CT最优刺激速度的效果，并对这三种模式进行了综合比较。我们的测量包括触摸愉悦度和强度的主观评分、神经生理反应（脑电图）以及定性评价。我们的结果表明，速度在这三种刺激模式中的每一种以及综合比较中都调节了主观和神经生理反应，并且S-CAT系统和手动方法的CT最优刺激在愉悦度方面得到了相似的评分和口头评价，这表明S-CAT触摸可以产生与手动抚摸相当的效果。我们讨论了从中获得的设计见解以及本研究为支持幸福和医疗保健所开辟的设计空间。
