INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Cornell researchers have made a little robot that can express its emotions through touch, sending out little spikes when it scared or even
getting goosebumps to express delight or excitement
The prototype, a cute smiling creature with rubber skin, is designed to test touch as an I/O system for robotic projects.
The robot mimics
the skin of octopi which can turn spiky when threatened.
The researchers, Yuhan Hu, Zhengnan Zhao, Abheek Vimal and Guy Hoffman, created the
robot to experiment with new methods for robot interaction
They compare the skin to &human goosebumps, cats& neck fur raising, dogs& back hair, the needles of a porcupine, spiking of a blowfish, or a
bird ruffled feathers.&
&Research in human-robot interaction shows that a robot ability to use nonverbal behavior to communicate affects
their potential to be useful to people, and can also have psychological effects
Other reasons include that having a robot use nonverbal behaviors can help make it be perceived as more familiar and less machine-like,& the
researchers told IEEE Spectrum.
The skin has multiple configurations and is powered by a computer-controlled elastomer that can inflate and
The goosebumps pop up to match the expression on the robot face, allowing humans to better understand what the robot &means& when it raises
its little hackles or gets bumpy
I, for one, welcome our bumpy robotic overlords.
