Evaluating the effects of active social touch and robot expressiveness on user attitudes and behaviour in human-robot interaction.

Touch plays a crucial role in human social interaction and emotional communication. Social touch refers to touching others in social contexts, serving purposes like greetings, affection, persuasion, and emotional regulation. Social robots are autonomous agents designed to interact with humans according to a social model these users apply. While the literature on human-robot touch interaction has focused on the effects of touch from the perspective of the subject being touched by a machine, the implications in the attitude and the behaviour of users when actively touching a robot still need to be explored. This work aims to determine whether actively touching a robot can enhance human-robot interaction and the role of the robot's expressiveness while being touched. We designed a human-robot touch interaction game involving memorising and replicating a touch sequence. We used a questionnaire to measure engagement, intrinsic motivation, and fun, three concepts connected to the user's behaviour while interacting with the robot. Our study shows tactile interaction with the robot improves user engagement and fun. The study also revealed that the robot's expressiveness also impacts the users' fun during the interaction. Lastly, results showed the impact of the touch interaction on the user is independent of the robot's expressiveness and interactivity.