Soft robotic shell with active thermal display

TL;DR

This paper introduces a soft robotic shell with an active thermal display that combines softness, customizable appearance, and temperature control, enhancing human-robot interaction and comfort.

Contribution

The work presents a novel two-layer soft-shell robotic cover with integrated water circulation for active thermal regulation and customizable surface features.

Findings

Successful integration with a humanoid robot demonstrating temperature control.

The outer layer can be patterned for texture and color customization.

The design enables tunable surface temperature for improved human interaction.

Abstract

Almost all robotic systems in use have hard shells, which is limiting in many ways their full potential of physical interaction with humans or their surrounding environment. Robots with soft-shell covers offer an alternative morphology which is more pleasant in both appearance and for haptic human interaction. A persisting challenge in such soft-shell robotic covers is the simultaneous realization of softness and heat-conducting properties. Such heat-conducting properties are important for enabling temperature-control of robotic covers in the range that is comfortable for human touch. The presented soft-shell robotic cover is composed of a linked two-layer structure: (i) the inner layer, with built-in pipes for water circulation, is soft and acts as a thermal-isolation layer between the cover and the robot structure, whereas (ii) the outer layer, which can be patterned with a given desired texture and color, allows heat transfer from the circulating water of the inner part to the surface. Moreover, we demonstrate the ability to integrate our prototype cover with a humanoid robot equipped with capacitance sensors. This fabrication technique enables robotic cover possibilities, including tunable color, surface texture, and size, that are likely to have applications in a variety of robotic systems.