Abstract
Since the beginning of humankind, touch has been a fundamental element of emotional communication between individuals. The increasing number and popularity of prosthetic and assistive robots make processing sense of touch essential to express affective touch. Based on the previous work of authors on design criteria to mediate affective touch, this paper introduces a device for generating stroking motion across the forearm to simulate affective touch. The device offers motion execution in over 50 different patterns by encompassing a matrix of linear actuators, which are designed to perform skin indentation and to simulate a stroking sensation. It also allows multiple mode parameters that can be investigated with a variety of stroking sensations. This can potentially reveal insightful results regarding affective touch .
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Acknowledgments
This work received support from the Mercator Research Center Ruhr (MERCUR) (Grant Number: An-2019-0032). The support by the Mercator Research Center Ruhr is acknowledged.
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Ferguson, N., Cansev, M.E., Dwivedi, A., Beckerle, P. (2023). Design of a Wearable Haptic Device to Mediate Affective Touch with a Matrix of Linear Actuators. In: Valle, M., et al. Advances in System-Integrated Intelligence. SYSINT 2022. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 546. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16281-7_48
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