Last week we ran a workshop “Methodological Innovation in Designing Sensations and Sentiments from Robot Touch” at the 21st Annual IEEE/ACM International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).

The organising committee and keynote speakers brought together world‑leading expertise across key domains relevant to robot touch, including robotic engineering, soft robotic haptic design for rehabilitation and affective healthcare, artificial intelligence, assistive robotics, pain management, haptic technology for women’s health, social science, neuroscience, healthcare, design, and the arts.

The workshop attracted 25 attendees and lively discussions were held exploring:

• The potential of developing a shared vocabulary for technology‑initiated touch
• Approaches to ethics, boundaries, and consent in human–robot interaction
• Tools and methods supporting technical development toward more nuanced, sensory‑rich robot touch

There was positive feedback from keynote speakers, poster presenters, and participants. One participant highlighted how the cross‑disciplinary keynote presentations introduced a wide range of methods for working with and designing robot touch—describing it as both rewarding and mind‑broadening.

The workshop also included unique sensitising activities, inviting participants to explore touching and being touched physically, alongside hands‑on design activities in small breakout groups. Each group received quick‑prototyping toolkits, including SomaSkin, to support embodied and experiential exploration.

Three participant groups worked through different design processes focused on very specific scenarios. Their work generated valuable insights into what is at stake when designing safe, appropriate, and sensorily meaningful robot touch across diverse contexts.

Despite the many terms currently used to describe technology‑initiated touch, the field still lacks a consistent and shared vocabulary. The learnings from these rich discussions will directly inform our ongoing effort to develop a document that brings together both technical and experiential perspectives—aiming to support a clearer, more coherent language across disciplines.