This hugging robot can improve people’s health
By: Conception X
Tags: Startup, Health Technology, Deeptech, Robotics, Algorithms

Alexis Block with her HuggieBot

Alexis Block was 19 years old and a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania when her father passed away. Unable to afford the plane ride back home to be close to family whenever she felt lonely that year, she wanted a hug more than anything else, from someone who could put some emphasis and meaning behind the gesture.

A few years later, for her master’s thesis, she got hold of a broken robot that had been hacked and abandoned in her lab. With the help of a lab mate, she fixed it up, gave it custom hardware and software upgrades and got it to hug people, to see how receptive they’d be. Soon after, Block started exploring the physical and behavioural characteristics of hugs.

“Softness and warmth are key components, and so is responsiveness — the tightness and duration of the hug, which vary depending on each person’s preferences,” Block says. “I didn’t feel like any robots that were commercially available were designed with close physical interaction in mind, and so I decided to build my own that was specifically designed for intimate interactions.”

For her PhD research with the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and ETH Zurich, Block created the first human-sized, interactive hugging robot with visual and haptic perception. It has an inflatable torso that can sense when people put their arms around it and when they release, and she developed a machine learning algorithm to detect the particularities of each hug, as well as a behavioural algorithm so the robot can respond naturally to the gesture.

HuggieBot can adaptively wrap each user in a secure embrace that doesn’t leave any air gaps and doesn’t apply any excessive force on the user’s body. By using an Intel Realsense depth camera, Block can estimate users’ height and approach so that people can be hugged back more naturally — no matter their size.

“The kind of touch that you receive from someone hugging you is called deep pressure touch therapy,” Block says. “It’s extremely calming and relaxing; it can help alleviate stress and anxiety.”

For Block, that’s what’s unique about her robot. Unlike others that were designed to be hugged by people without the ability to reciprocate, hers can hug back. Now, Block has started researching the impact of her robot’s hugs on people, with early findings suggesting that HuggieBot shares similarities with human hugs and can positively affect users’ health.

Block is also developing an app that would allow users to send customised hugs that could be redeemed by their loved ones who are far away. The app would let people set the duration of the hug and any defining characteristics like intra-hug gestures, and record a personalised video that would be shown through the robot’s screen face when the user scans a QR code.

“I don’t view this as a replacement of human physical connection and physical touch,” Block says, “but I hope it could help people going through difficult times, and hopefully ease the pain of separation.”

With the pandemic, Block has witnessed a growing interest in her HuggieBot. While recruiting participants for a recent study, she received countless messages from people who wanted to get involved because they hadn’t been hugged in over a year.

“It just shows an innate human need for social and physical connection,” she says.

Block aims to find ten early adopters among large institutions that could benefit from the technology, such as universities, hospitals, nursing homes, and more. The long-term goal is to eventually create a robotic household helper for emotional support.

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