Embedded Files
Methodological Innovation in Designing Sensations and Sentiments from Robot Touch
in conjuction with ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) 2026, Room (TBD)
The critical role of human-human touch and the rapid development of accessible haptics technology is preluding a new generation of social and assistive robotic interactions that support and enhance human daily life through physical contact, including assisting mobility, mental health, pain management, social bonding, and novel sensory experience for body literacy. For social and assistive robotic systems to fit in the intimate space of physical contact with human bodies, the nature and success of the interaction needs to be interlinked to the sensory and sentimental qualities of robot touch. HRI should not only be driven by function and efficiency, but more critically, the experience of the touch interaction, felt by the human. This raises fundamental methodological challenges. Designerly and somatic approaches are advantageous in capturing tacit and nuanced bodily experience that inform novel design ideas, however transferring the rich qualitative knowledge into effective robotic systems has not been made possible. From the roboticists and AI researchers perspective, there is a lack of tools to investigate the ephemeral phenomenon of felt sensations. Addressing this challenge calls for methodological innovation to investigate the sensory and experiential aspects of technology-initiated social touch, through facilitating cross-disciplinary expertise and end-users' involvement. This workshop mobilises experts from diverse disciplines, including robotics engineering, AI, social science, neuroscience, healthcare, soma design and arts. The aim of this workshop is to collectively reflect on strategies, tools and methods for the co-exploration and co-production of Robot-Human Touch Interactions that afford appropriate and desirable human felt experience.
The critical role of human-human touch and the rapid development of accessible haptics technology is preluding a new generation of social and assistive robotic interactions that support and enhance human daily life through physical contact, including assisting mobility, mental health, pain management, social bonding, and novel sensory experience for body literacy. For social and assistive robotic systems to fit in the intimate space of physical contact with human bodies, the nature and success of the interaction needs to be interlinked to the sensory and sentimental qualities of robot touch. HRI should not only be driven by function and efficiency, but more critically, the experience of the touch interaction, felt by the human. This raises fundamental methodological challenges. Designerly and somatic approaches are advantageous in capturing tacit and nuanced bodily experience that inform novel design ideas, however transferring the rich qualitative knowledge into effective robotic systems has not been made possible. From the roboticists and AI researchers perspective, there is a lack of tools to investigate the ephemeral phenomenon of felt sensations. Addressing this challenge calls for methodological innovation to investigate the sensory and experiential aspects of technology-initiated social touch, through facilitating cross-disciplinary expertise and end-users' involvement. This workshop mobilises experts from diverse disciplines, including robotics engineering, AI, social science, neuroscience, healthcare, soma design and arts. The aim of this workshop is to collectively reflect on strategies, tools and methods for the co-exploration and co-production of Robot-Human Touch Interactions that afford appropriate and desirable human felt experience.
Objectives and Topics of Interest:
Objectives and Topics of Interest:
Through its organising committee and confirmed keynote speakers, this workshop brings together world-leading expertise across key domains relevant for designing robot touch, including robotic engineering, soft robotic haptic design for rehabilitation and affective
Through its organising committee and confirmed keynote speakers, this workshop brings together world-leading expertise across key domains relevant for designing robot touch, including robotic engineering, soft robotic haptic design for rehabilitation and affective
healthcare, artificial intelligence, assistive robotics, pain management, haptic technology for women’s health, social science, neuroscience, healthcare, design and arts. Through our CfP we will motivate poster participation from early-career researchers from diverse domains and geolocations. The aim of this workshop is to collectively reflect on possible strategies, tools and methods to facilitate the co-exploration and co-production of human-robot touch interactions that afford appropriate and desirable human experience. Our workshop will engage discussions on the following questions:
healthcare, artificial intelligence, assistive robotics, pain management, haptic technology for women’s health, social science, neuroscience, healthcare, design and arts. Through our CfP we will motivate poster participation from early-career researchers from diverse domains and geolocations. The aim of this workshop is to collectively reflect on possible strategies, tools and methods to facilitate the co-exploration and co-production of human-robot touch interactions that afford appropriate and desirable human experience. Our workshop will engage discussions on the following questions:
(1) Exploring a shared vocabulary to refer to this design space
(1) Exploring a shared vocabulary to refer to this design space
(2) Brainstorming strategies, tools, and methods for supporting playful and creative qualitative sensory engagement while balancing practical technical development and reproducibility
(2) Brainstorming strategies, tools, and methods for supporting playful and creative qualitative sensory engagement while balancing practical technical development and reproducibility
(3) Exploring tools that empower users to control and personalise the sensory experience.
(3) Exploring tools that empower users to control and personalise the sensory experience.
Read our proposal to find out more of the motivations of this workshop, the cross-disciplinary challenges and the significance for this design space.
Supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) through the Turing AI World Leading Researcher Fellowship: Somabotics: Creatively Embodying Artificial Intelligence [grant number EP/Z534808/1]
Schedule
Schedule
9:00-9.10 Welcome.
9.10 - 9.25 Keynote 1: Merle Fairhurst
9.25 - 9.40 Keynote 2: Adam Spiers
9.40 - 9.55 Keynote 3: Steve Benford
9.55 - 10.10 Keynote 4: Madeline Balaam.
10.10-10.30 Poster session
10.30-10.45 Break and poster session continues
10.45-11.45 Interactive session: Playing with touch: Design exercise
11.45-12.00 Sharing of playing with touch experience
12.00-12.30 Discussion: Themes for joint papers
Keynote Speakers
Keynote Speakers
Prof. Merle Fairhurst is a cognitive neuroscientist with strong interdisciplinary ties. She works on developing innovative technology exploring social touch and trust in physiotherapy.
Prof. Steve Benford is Dunford Professor of Computer Science at the University of Nottingham’s Mixed Reality Laboratory, Director of the EPSRC-funded Horizon Centre for Doctoral Training and a UKRI Turing AI Fellow. His five year UK Turing AI Fellowship on `Somabotics: Creatively Embodying Artificial Intelligence' will explore how people make meaning through art and embodied experience, partnering with award winning artists to create a series of robotic artworks, from robots that embrace and groom humans, to ones that dance and play with them.
Dr. Adam Spiers is a lecturer in Robotics and Machine Learning at Imperial. He leads the Manipulation and Touch Lab. His main research focus is on robot manipulation, where he takes inspiration from biological systems to develop new robotic hand hardware, sensing and control approaches. He also conducts research in upper-limb prosthetics, human hand function and handheld shape-changing haptic interfaces.
Prof. Madeline Balaam is a professor in Interaction Design at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Madeline has worked at the intersection of HCI and intimate health for the last 10+ years. She is currently pursuing a research agenda exploring the intersection between touch, soma design and the intimate body. Madeline has previously led and contributed to workshops at ACM CHI and ACM DIS.
Organisers
Organisers
Dr. Caroline Yan Zheng is a Transitional Assistant Professor at the University of Nottingham, UK. Her design work explores soft robotic caring touch in contexts including healthcare, women's health, FemTech and autonomous driving. Her current research involves developing sensors and methods to connect felt experiential qualities to technical parameters to help robot touch acquire richer nuances and subtleties. She was a co-investigator in the Cancer Research UK-funded project ‘Improving care through soft robotic tactile intervention – towards a smarter compassionate experience in cancer treatment (SOFTLI)’.
Dr. Maria Elena Giannaccini is an Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham, whose research centres on soft robotics, human robot interaction and robot touch. Her work develops actuators, and bio-inspired tactile sensors to enable safe, adaptable physical human-robot interaction. She has applied these principles to wearable robotic devices for rehabilitation. Through this interdisciplinary focus, Dr. Giannaccini advances the design of robots that can interact with people more naturally, safely, and effectively.
Prof. Praminda Caleb-Solly specialises in assistive robotics and intelligent sensing. She is currently Professor of Embodied Intelligence at the University of Nottingham, where she leads the Cyber-physical Health and Assistive Robotics Technologies (CHART) research group. Professor Caleb-Solly is also the Academic Lead for the University of Nottingham at the National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC), contributing her expertise in biomedical engineering and AI to advance rehabilitation research and innovation.
Prof. Mark Paterson is Professor of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh, USA. He conducts research on bodily sensation and technologies of the senses. His books include The Senses of Touch: Haptics, Affects and Technologies (Routledge, 2007), How We Became Sensorimotor: Movement, Measurement, Sensation (University of Minnesota Press, 2021), and Affective Touching: Neurobiology and Technological Applications (Cambridge University Press, 2025).
Angela Higgins is a PhD student at the University of Nottingham. She has a background in product design, and now works to co-develop technology for healthcare and assistive purposes. Her PhD work uses somatic co-design methods to create embodied AI systems for the monitoring and management of chronic pain in older people.
Dr. Feng Zhou is currently a Research Fellow on the Somabotics programme, a UKRI-funded initiative investigating creative applications of artificial intelligence in human–robot interaction. Within the project, he leads the development of SomaSkin—a modular haptic platform designed to advance AI- and robotics-based co-creation through collaborations with world-leading artists.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse