ABSTRACT
Touch is an essential element in human–human interaction. In this section, we introduce related studies about social touch in both human–human interaction and human–robot interaction. Past studies in human–human interaction unveiled several positive effects of social touch, which led to the importance of social touch in human–robot interaction. We thought that touch interaction with robots resembles an amplifier in relationships; thus, robotics researchers and developers should carefully design touch interaction and behaviors to build positive relationships between people and robots. For this purpose, the researchers need to understand touch interaction through the developments of both hardware and software, which are directly related to touch interaction design. We hope that this book will help researchers and students working in the field of human–robot touch interaction.
