First steps towards the touch robot

A squeeze in the arm, a pat on the shoulder, or a slap in the face – touch is an important part of the social interaction between people. Social touch, however, is a relatively unknown field when it comes to robots, even though robots operate with increasing frequency in society at large, rather than just in the controlled environment of a factory. Using a relatively simple system – a mannequin's arm with pressure sensors, connected to a computer – researchers have succeeded in getting it to recognize sixty percent of all touches.