University of Twente Student Theses
The influence of the perception of social touch on human-robot interaction
Onrust, S. (2025) The influence of the perception of social touch on human-robot interaction.
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| Abstract: | With the growing advances in social robotics, a need arises for more seamless and intuitive interactions. State-of-the-art humanoid social robots can perceive their environment and interact similarly to humans. However, they often lack the ability to perceive complex social touch-based interaction. This limits research into natural social touch-based interaction. This work aimed to evaluate a human-robot interaction in which a robot can react to induced touch-based interaction in a social context. A 3D printable touch-sensitive shell was created for a Furhat robot, which allows it perceive touch-interaction. A within-subject experiment was conducted to evaluate the perception of the ability to touch. Participants were asked to read to the Furhat while trying to keep its attention. While reading the story, the Furhat lost its attention over time. In one condition, the Furhat regained its attention after a certain amount of time. In the other condition, the Furhat only regained its attention when touched. Both conditions were evaluated using the Artificial Social Agent Questionnaire. This work found that there is a statistically significant difference between the scores produced by the Artificial Social Agent Questionnaire for the two conditions, specifically on the Natural Behaviour, Agent’s Appearance suitability, Agent’s Usability Performance, Agent’s Sociability, User’s Trust, User-Agent Alliance, Agents Attentiveness and Agent’s Intentionality social constructs. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | EEMCS: Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science |
| Subject: | 50 technical science in general, 70 social sciences in general |
| Programme: | Interaction Technology MSc (60030) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/105055 |
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