Social robots and the futures of affective touch

Abstract

I focus on the role of touch within human-robot interaction. Because robots are physically embodied, this brings up questions of anthropomorphism and behavioral mimicry in the establishment of trust and rapport, especially between robots and developmentally diverse or elderly human subjects. By examining two recent examples of social robots, SoCoRo and HuggieBot 2.0, I ask: what can historic and current nonverbal communication studies teach us about haptic protocols and motor mimicry? How are touching behaviors fostering prosocial behaviors, and what potential is there for using robotic platforms as experimental laboratories to investigate the futures of touching?