Alexis Block is teaching robots to give good hugs

Alexis Block, a Ph.D. student in the Haptic Intelligence Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart as well as at ETH Zurich, has been developing HuggieBot, a robot that is designed for giving you a hug. The modified PR2 robot that stands as tall as an average human is made extra soft using layers of foam, polyester, and other materials. Thirty participants were involved in the study, each of whom received 12 different machine hugs, which they then gave their feedback on.

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The media feedback has been phenomenal:

• https://www.therobotreport.com/eth-zurich-human-machine-trust-robotic-hug/
• https://stemonfire.com/90-mechanicalroboticscomputer-science-nothing-cooler-than-being-a-woman-in-stem-alexis-block/
• https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/the-importance-of-teaching-robots-to-hug
• https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/strong-and-non-clingy-robots-give-the-best-hugs-study-reveals-huggiebot-pdx566xk0
• https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/why-scientists-are-teaching-robot-hug-ncna882026
• https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/robot-really-good-at-hugs/
• https://boingboing.net/2018/06/06/why-these-scientists-are-teach.html
• https://www.geek.com/tech/this-robot-just-wants-a-hug-1742858
• https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=620618732
• Paul Ross Show: http://talkradio.co.uk/radio/listen-again/1529020800# aired between 4:30-5:00and begins about 8 minutes in, 11 minute long interview.
• Late Night with Seth Meyers: https://youtu.be/D7yipww_lek Starting at 1:52, Seth Meyers jokes about HuggieBot during his opening monologue of his show
• https://nowthisnews.com/videos/future/huggiebot-is-a-robot-that-hugs