Giant Tactile Robots

Air Giants are a creative robotics company making a new kind of giant (typically 5-10m) interactive soft robot using fabric, air, and computing. They are aimed at artistic and creative purposes. Throughout our multiple exhibitions (public art, festivals), we have seen a big appetite for large-scale close-up tactile interaction between humans and our huge soft robots, both upper-body interactions (strokes and hugs) but also whole-body interactions (leaning in, sitting on, being enclosed, being lifted and moved by the robot). This happens even though our robots do not detect touch or respond to it in meaningful ways. This is confirmed by our visitor surveys which often mention these interactions.

These interactions with our giant robots need to go both ways, so the robot detects touch and responds to it in haptically-interesting ways (shape change, surface vibration, supporting and moving the person). These interactions engage the tactile, proprioceptive, and vestibular senses in ways which are rarely explored and show great promise for compelling interactions. There is no conventionally-deployed technology to do either the detection or response in a safe and economical way. To achieve this we are pairing up with the Bristol Interaction Group, an academic group specialized in the interactions between humans and technology.

Our goals are to (1) build the technology to sense touch over large inflated surfaces, both economically and with adequate spatial resolution and timeliness; (2) build the actuations that can respond in emotionally-effective ways; and (3) understand how humans interact with giant tactile robots to create new interaction paradigms (4) understand how these interactions can dovetail into VR, AR, XR experiences to add meaning and storytelling opportunities.

There's a lot of new territory to explore both creatively and academically. Although there has been a lot of work on haptic interaction with robots and digital systems, it is nearly all focused on small-scale interaction with the hands. Very little of it uses the whole body, or engages the rich interactions that develop when people start to entrust their weight to the robot or move around bodily with the robot.

This project will open up the space for interacting with soft robots, impacting the fields of Soft Robotics and Human Computer Interaction. Giant tactile robots in public art, in VR (especially gaming), in the theme park industry; or alternatively to be used for digital health and wellbeing, e.g. to create innovative sensory environments for children with special needs.