Abstract
Hugs play an essential role in social bonding between people. This study evaluates the hug interactions with a robot identifying the perception. Four hug release methods in adults were applied, a short-time hug, a long-time hug, a touch-controlled hug, and a pressure-controlled hug. The social robot CASTOR was integrated into this study, a modification was made in its arms to perform the hugging action, and a pressure sensor in its upper back. 12 adults (5 females and 7 males) participated in the study. Results showed that the perception of friendliness comparing the short-time hug and the pressure-controlled hug had differences (\(p=0.036\)), making the pressure-controlled hug more friendly. In the case of natural perception, the touch-controlled hug was more natural comparing with the short-time hug (\(p=0.047\)). This study presents the feasibility of implementing CASTOR in hugging interactions.
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Gaitán-Padilla, M. et al. (2021). Physical Human-Robot Interaction Through Hugs with CASTOR Robot. In: Li, H., et al. Social Robotics. ICSR 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 13086. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90525-5_77
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90525-5_77
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