ABSTRACT
In this section, we present an android platform with a masculine appearance. Research in human–human interaction has illustrated the significant role of gender in the context of social touch. However, in the realm of human–robot interaction, most studies emphasize human genders, with less focus on the robot’s perceived gender. We developed this android to explore the impact of gender in social touch, specifically within the human–robot interaction context. We aim to compare our results with those from existing android platforms that have a feminine appearance. To avoid potential appearance effects, we adopted a non-existent face design and incorporated fabric-based capacitance type touch sensors throughout the android’s body to achieve rich physical interaction with people. We discussed possible use cases using our new android robot that was particularly designed for social touch interaction.
