Licker: A Tongue Robot for Representing Realistic Tongue Motions

We present Licker, a flexible tongue robot that is capable of mimicking a human tongue motion. The aim of this robot is to grow social bonding, regardless of species by licking. At first, we analyzed the human tongue motion and found four basic motions. Based on this result, we developed an originally designed tongue motion robot. Then, we also carefully designed tactile feeling of the tongue, such as softness of tongue itself and slimy feeling of saliva. By using this robot, we could confirm through demonstrations that this robot can present realistic tactile feeling being licked.