Step by Step Building and Evaluation of Low-Cost Capacitive Technology Touch System for Human-Social Robot Interaction

The development of social robots aims to create machines that can interact and collaborate with people in a natural way. To achieve this, social robots must be designed to make people feel physically and psychologically comfortable with them, with haptic communication being a crucial factor. Capacitive touch technology has been implemented in robotics for sensing contact in various areas of a robot's body during human-robot interaction. However, there is a need for low-cost haptic systems that can be easily built and deployed by professionals without engineering backgrounds, such as educators. This study presents a low-cost haptic system built with consumer materials and tested for accuracy and user experience. Results show that the system is more than 80% accurate and persistent and has a high score in user experience across users from different backgrounds. We used Adafruit MPR121, Arduino and 3D printed materials. The system can be easily adapted to different robotic systems and hard materials to enhance human-robot interaction for various social applications. The study highlights the importance of developing low-cost and accessible haptic systems for social robots, which can help increase trust and acceptance of these machines in everyday life.