The Huggie Project

Abstract

Hugging is a form of social interaction that significantly impacts the mental and the physical well-being. However, the access to physical touch might be limited, for example for elderly or ill people or during a pandemic like the current Corona crisis. A robot hugging humans could be a solution to this problem. This thesis aims to examine the degree of acceptance among the society towards robotic hugs and to find out how such a robot would have to be designed and which features it should possess in order to be perceived as an attractive hugging partner.