In the Social and Physical Human-Robot Interaction (SaPHaRI) Lab at the Case School of Engineering, we design, build, and program robots for unique and exciting social and physical interactions with humans.
Have you ever been physically separated from your friends and loved ones and noticed that texting and phone calls are insufficient at providing the emotional closeness and support you require? Led by Alexis E. Block, the SaPHaRI Lab aims to create novel robots to improve overall mental health and well-being.
We create ways for people to connect with their distant loved ones, investigate ways to promote feelings of embodiment in virtual and remote environments and enable users to directly form connections with support robots and their surroundings via wearable technology.
We work to gain a scientific understanding of how these interactions affect our users physiologically and create a feedback loop to improve the user experience in real-time.