Touch Boundaries During Physical Human-Robot Interaction

Abstract

Physical Human-Robot Interaction is an evolving field that explores the role of robotic touch. Prior work focused on perceptions of touch acceptance broadly, yet these perceptions are highly dependent on body region, social context, and embodiment - factors not systematically studied in humanrobot interaction, nor captured by existing evaluation methods. We address this gap with two contributions: (I) adapting and assessing the usability of a body-mapping coloring tool, PHRI-Boundaries, to measure comfort with robot touch, and (II) a crowd-sourced online study $(\mathbf{N}=\mathbf{3 5 0})$ using PHRI-Boundaries to evaluate touch comfort across robot roles (future of work, domestic, romantic partner, medical, and education/culture). Results reveal that medical and romantic partner robots elicit the highest comfort in touch perception, with males reporting greater comfort than females, overall preference for animalinspired embodiments, and human touch consistently rated as more comfortable than robot touch. These findings highlight the need to evaluate robot touch across diverse contexts and embodiments, supporting the development of tools like pHRI-Boundaries to evaluate comfort with robot touch.