Psychological Effect of Contact Interaction Robot. Making Sense of Relief and Moderating Painfulness by Contact Interaction.

Abstract

This paper proposes a Contact Interaction Robot (CIR) and reports CIR's psychological effect to the human. The CIR utilizes contact behavior as the interaction means between a human and the robot. We develop the CIR equipped with pressure sensors on both sides of its neck and six servo motors in its neck, two arms and two legs taking account of the application to the dentist as a typical example. The psychological experiments are performed by utilizing the CIR. The experimental results reveal that the CIR is able to moderate the painfulness perceived by the human as well as to bring a sense of relief.