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arXiv · 2409.12338

Can I Pet Your Robot? Incorporating Capacitive Touch Sensing into a Soft Socially Assistive Robot Platform

Amy O'Connell·Bailey Cislowski·Heather Culbertson·Maja Matarić
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Abstract

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.

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Amy O'Connell, Bailey Cislowski, Heather Culbertson, Maja Matarić. 2024-09-18. Can I Pet Your Robot? Incorporating Capacitive Touch Sensing into a Soft Socially Assistive Robot Platform. https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.12338

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