ACM Gives Best Paper Award To Soft Robots Built As Companions
The paper, published June 22 in Singapore, swaps propeller drones for soft shapes built to touch, breathe beside, and console the isolated.
- Authors Mingyang Xu and Kai Kunze presented five prototypes, replacing rotor blades entirely.
- One robot, shaped like a jellyfish, pulses against the body to pace breathing.
- Another prototype plays with a pet indoors while its owner is away from home.
Why it matters: Building a robot to touch and breathe beside a person treats loneliness as an engineering problem.
Kai Kunze (co-author) personal site confirming ACM DIS 2026 paper ↗ · Jul 16, 20267/16/26 · ✓ Checked✓ Check