Soft is Safe: Human-Robot Interaction for Soft Robots

2025-02-03

AI Summary

Addressing the human–robot coexistence requirements of Industry 5.0, this work tackles the core challenges of safe, natural, and adaptive collaboration between soft robots and humans in shared physical spaces. Method: We propose the first comprehensive, full-stack human–robot interaction (HRI) analysis framework for soft robotics—spanning design principles, stimuli-responsive materials, actuation mechanisms, soft sensing modalities, multimodal interfaces (e.g., speech, gesture, electromyography, vision), and human factors integration—thereby elucidating their intrinsic interaction mechanisms distinct from rigid robots. Contribution/Results: The study identifies critical research gaps in dynamic environment perception, real-time compliant control, cross-modal intent inference, and long-term trust modeling. It further articulates a principled development roadmap guided by three pillars: safety-by-design, biocompatibility, and closed-loop adaptivity. This work provides both theoretical foundations and a practical, implementation-oriented technology roadmap for advancing soft robotic HRI.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Human-Robot Interaction
• Humans and AI: Interaction Techniques and Devices
• Natural Language Processing: Safety and Robustness

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Web evaluation methodologies and metrics
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Research challenges in human and human-AI computation

Abstract

With the presence of robots increasing in the society, the need for interacting with robots is becoming necessary. The field of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) has emerged important since more repetitive and tiresome jobs are being done by robots. In the recent times, the field of soft robotics has seen a boom in the field of research and commercialization. The Industry 5.0 focuses on human robot collaboration which also spurs the field of soft robotics. However the HRI for soft robotics is still in the nascent stage. In this work we review and then discuss how HRI is done for soft robots. We first discuss the control, design, materials and manufacturing of soft robots. This will provide an understanding of what is being interacted with. Then we discuss about the various input and output modalities that are used in HRI. The applications where the HRI for soft robots are found in the literature are discussed in detail. Then the limitations of HRI for soft robots and various research opportunities that exist in this field are discussed in detail. It is concluded that there is a huge scope for development for HRI for soft robots.

Problem

• Soft Robotic
• Human-Robot Interaction
• Industry 5.0

Innovation

• Soft Robotics
• Human-Robot Interaction
• Safe Collaboration