A Novel Robot Soft Cover with Thermal Display Capabilities

Yukiko Osawa (1) , Abderrahmane Kheddar (1)

1 IDH - Interactive Digital Humans

There is a considerable amount of studies focusing on 'intelligence' in planning and control to implement effective human-robot physical interaction. However, physical interaction between humans and robots also pertains 'intelligence' in terms of hardware, and more particularly the interfacing cover, often called artificial skins. How to design covers that gathers both functionalities (e.g. softness, sensing) and aesthetic (e.g. pleasant to human sight and touch) is a very challenging problem. In this letter, we propose a prototype of a robot cover that achieves thermal display while being also soft. This is because previous human studies have identified thermal cues as part of the touch pleasantness feeling. In order to realize both softness and high thermal conductivity, the developed cover embed an urethane pipe within which water flows. The soft cover becomes hot or cold by controlling the temperature of the flowing water. The algorithm for regulating the cover's temperature for display is similar to the human blood system, which is simple but effective. We assess our developed cover with some experiments.

Domaines: Systèmes et contrôle [cs.SY]; Matériaux et structures en mécanique [physics.class-ph]

Yukiko Osawa, Abderrahmane Kheddar. A Novel Robot Soft Cover with Thermal Display Capabilities. 2020. ⟨hal-02491308v1⟩