This work presents a method of incorporating low-cost capacitive tactile sensors on a soft socially assistive robot platform. By embedding conductive thread into the robot's crocheted exterior, we formed a set of low-cost, flexible capacitive tactile sensors that do not disrupt the robot's soft, zoomorphic embodiment. We evaluated the sensors' performance through a user study (N=20) and found that the sensors reliably detected user touch events and localized touch inputs to one of three regions on the robot's exterior.
@article{arxiv.2409.12338,
title = {Can I Pet Your Robot? Incorporating Capacitive Touch Sensing into a Soft Socially Assistive Robot Platform},
author = {Amy O'Connell and Bailey Cislowski and Heather Culbertson and Maja Matarić},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.12338},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
Accepted as a Work-In-Progress submission at the 2024 IEEE Haptics Symposium