Human Emotion-Mediated Soft Robotic Arts: Exploring the Intersection of Human Emotions, Soft Robotics and Arts

Soft robotics has emerged as a versatile field with applications across various domains, from healthcare to industrial automation, and more recently, art and interactive installations. The inherent flexibility, adaptability, and safety of soft robots make them ideal for applications that require delicate, organic, and lifelike movement, allowing for immersive and responsive interactions. This study explores the intersection of human emotions, soft robotics, and art to establish and create new forms of human emotion-mediated soft robotic art. In this paper, we introduce two soft embodiments: a soft character and a soft flower as an art display that dynamically responds to brain signals based on alpha waves, reflecting different emotion levels. We present how human emotions can be measured as alpha waves based on brain/EEG signals, how we map the alpha waves to the dynamic movements of the two soft embodiments, and demonstrate our proposed concept using experiments. The findings of this study highlight how soft robotics can embody human emotional states, offering a new medium for insightful artistic expression and interaction, and demonstrating how art displays can be embodied.