Minori Furusawa

This study aims to induce a state of relaxation in users by having a robot perform tapping on them. Insomnia is now considered a serious health risk worldwide. As a solution to this problem, this study focused on the “Relaxation” method of CBT-I, a treatment for insomnia . The authors developed a tapping robot designed to help users enter a relaxed state, a condition in which the parasympathetic nervous system becomes dominant, and the user perceives themselves as “relaxed.” The tapping robot can maintain a more consistent rhythm and intensity than a human practitioner. Furthermore, the robot is expected to detect users’ mental and physical states using sensors and other devices, providing appropriate feedback. In this study, we developed and proposed a robot that induces relaxation through tapping, thereby reducing users’ mental and physical stress. As a result of the experiments, a significant decrease in heart rate was observed in 8 out of 15 users. It suggests that the tapping robot induces relaxation for sleeping.