As robots have taken on a greater involvement in our lives, there has been a growing interest in how we might emotionally react to the robots in our midst.

For instance, one study suggested that robots need to be made with human like flaws that might allow us to bond better with them.

A second study by a team of Japanese researchers highlighted our capability to emotionally empathize with robots, albeit at a lower level than they would normally show to humans.

Physical bonds

Now, a third study has explored whether this extends to physical attachment.  The study, by a team from Stanford University discovered that touching the ‘intimate’ areas of a robot elicits the same physiological response in us as touching those same areas on a human.

The team conducted an experiment using the NAO humanoid robot that’s been developed by Aldebaran Robotics.  The machine was programmed to instruct a number of participants to touch various parts of its body.

Each of these participants was kitted out with an Affectiva Q-Sensor on their fingers to measure skin conductance.  This is believed to be a good test for physiological arousal.

As you can see from the video at the foot of this post, the participants were guided through various touches by the machine, with some ‘safe’ areas, such as the ears, whilst others were riskier areas, such as the buttocks.

Interestingly, it emerged that the human participants did indeed show greater arousal levels when they touched the riskier parts of the robot, which provides valuable insight into how touch could be used to foster relationships between humans and robots.

“Our work shows that robots are a new form of media that is particularly powerful. It shows that people respond to robots in a primitive, social way,” the authors say. “Social conventions regarding touching someone else’s private parts apply to a robot’s body parts as well. This research has implications for both robot design and theory of artificial systems.”