The Six Hug Commandments: Design and Evaluation of a Human-Sized Hugging\n Robot with Visual and Haptic Perception

Abstract

Receiving a hug is one of the best ways to feel socially supported, and the\nlack of social touch can have severe negative effects on an individual's\nwell-being. Based on previous research both within and outside of HRI, we\npropose six tenets ("commandments") of natural and enjoyable robotic hugging: a\nhugging robot should be soft, be warm, be human sized, visually perceive its\nuser, adjust its embrace to the user's size and position, and reliably release\nwhen the user wants to end the hug. Prior work validated the first two tenets,\nand the final four are new. We followed all six tenets to create a new robotic\nplatform, HuggieBot 2.0, that has a soft, warm, inflated body (HuggieChest) and\nuses visual and haptic sensing to deliver closed-loop hugging. We first\nverified the outward appeal of this platform in comparison to the previous\nPR2-based HuggieBot 1.0 via an online video-watching study involving 117 users.\nWe then conducted an in-person experiment in which 32 users each exchanged\neight hugs with HuggieBot 2.0, experiencing all combinations of visual hug\ninitiation, haptic sizing, and haptic releasing. The results show that adding\nhaptic reactivity definitively improves user perception a hugging robot,\nlargely verifying our four new tenets and illuminating several interesting\nopportunities for further improvement.\n