Human Pain Relief by Simultaneously Grasping and Being Grasped by an Inflatable Haptic Device

Abstract

Social touch can be established in human-robot touch conditions according to previous studies in HRI. For eliciting numerous benefits of touching interaction between human and robot, we propose a doll-like inflatable haptic device that can be worn around the hand. The touching interaction with the device is presented by pneumatic airbag system which can provide a grasping feedback sensation when being grasped by a human. We expect this mutual touching brings a beneficial effect on alleviating human pains.