ABSTRACT
This section addresses the influence of various touch characteristics on perceived emotions during human–robot interaction with ERICA, a feminine, human-like android robot. Previous research on human–robot touch interaction has largely focused on the touch characteristics of humans who convey emotion to robots without focusing enough on the effects of robot touch characteristics on the human perception of emotion. In this study, we focused on three touch characteristics (length, type, and body part) from the perspective of arousal and valence, and their effects on the perceived emotions of happiness and sadness. Our experiment results indicate that touch length and type can effectively alter the perceived emotions based on arousal and valence, although the body part that was touched did not show a consistent relationship with these factors. Our findings suggest that a brief pat and longer contact by the fingers effectively convey happy and sad emotions through our robot.
