A Cabinet of Affective Touches: Building Design Repository Linking Somatic Experience with Soft Robotic Systems

A Cabinet of Affective Touches (ACAT) represents an approach to generate tacit design knowledge and build a repository for creating, experiencing and reflecting on designing affective touch with soft robotic technology. Despite being increasingly recognised as a somaesthetic material for affective touch interactions, knowledge on technical parameters and the experiential quality of touch with soft robotic technology is investigated fragmentally in separate disciplines. Sixty four haptics design students used the ACAT platform and created a repository of seventeen designs intended for all primary affective dimensions, covering both positive and negative affective experience. We illustrate how this process cultivated tacit design knowledge and fostered critical reflection on novel design space, in particular, on how to facilitate the creation and sharing the designs of uncomfortable touch.