Members of the Somabotics Garden project team are preparing for a visit to the Beany House of Art & Knowledge in Canterbury, where they will install two soft robotic prototypes; The Tickling Rocks and The Hug Chair, as part of Makers of Imaginary Worlds interactive experience, The Garden, featuring in the Playground Festival 2026.

The Garden is an immersive, sensory-rich installation which is designed especially for babies and young children. Through gentle lighting, playful soundscapes and tactile exploration, little visitors will be invited into a magical world of plants, flowers, birds, insects and animals in a journey to the clouds and back.

The Somabotics Garden research team have been developing:

·      The Tickling Rocks incorporate interactive soft pneumatic grippers that invite infants to explore through touch and being touched.
·      The Hug chair which consists of a soft robotic sensory wrap with breathing like rhythm that embraces the caregiver and infant.

The team will be running pre-tests to capture valuable research data on 20th and 21st April. If you have an infant 0-18 months and would like to be involved, please go to: https://lnkd.in/e4X7zhia

The installation’s official opening on Saturday 25 April. Findings from these early trials will help shape future research examining how babies and young children perceive and interact with robots and embodied AI.