Inducing Calmness With Pocket-Sized Robotics: Reducing Movement and Heart Rate in Children through Hand-Held Tactile Interactions

[2605.27533] Inducing Calmness With Pocket-Sized Robotics: Reducing Movement and Heart Rate in Children through Hand-Held Tactile Interactions Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Computer Science > Robotics arXiv:2605.27533 (cs) [Submitted on 26 May 2026 ( v1 ), last revised 22 Aug 2026 (this version, v2)] Title: Inducing Calmness With Pocket-Sized Robotics: Reducing Movement and Heart Rate in Children through Hand-Held Tactile Interactions Authors: Morten Roed Frederiksen , Kasper Støy , Maja Matarić View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: Periods of heightened arousal or restlessness can interfere with children's ability to focus, self-regulation, and physically calm. Technologies that encourage embodied self-regulation through tactile interaction may provide a simple and accessible means of promoting calmness. This paper investigates how interaction with a pocket-sized tactile device influences physiological and behavioral markers of calmness in typically developing children. Building on prior work examining heart rate modulation, we present new findings on how tactile interaction affects full-body movement and postural stability. We employ a device that engages children through a hand-held rhythmic vibration-matching game, designed to focus attention and encourage stillness. Eighteen children participated in a within-subjects study that involved two conditions: with and without tactile interaction with a hand-held device, while having their heart rate and body movement recorded. Results show that the tactile game interaction reduced physiological arousal (heart rate decreased by 3.37bpm p = 0.019) and physical restlessness (overall movement decreased by 37.6% p = 0.02), with attention-related body regions showing the greatest change toward stillness (44.8% reduction in movement). These findings demonstrate that brief tactile game-like engagement with a hand-held device can down-regulate physiological activation, promoting the calm and focused states toward sustained attention and behavior regulation. Comments: 34 pages, 2 tables, 7 figures Subjects: Robotics (cs.RO) Cite as: arXiv:2605.27533 [cs.RO] (or arXiv:2605.27533v2 [cs.RO] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.27533 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Morten Roed Frederiksen [ view email ] [v1] Tue, 26 May 2026 18:06:48 UTC (3,224 KB) [v2] Sat, 22 Aug 2026 06:02:43 UTC (3,224 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Additional Features Audio Summary Current browse context: cs.RO < prev | next > new | recent | 2026-05 Change to browse by: cs References & Citations SciX Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs . Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax ( What is MathJax? ) We gratefully acknowledge support from our major funders , member institutions , and all contributors. About · Help · Contact · Subscribe · Copyright · Privacy · Accessibility · Operational Status (opens in new tab)

Related documents

• Inducing Calmness With Pocket-Sized Robotics: Reducing Movement and Heart Rate in Children through Hand-Held Tactile Interactions#665783
• During haptic communication, the central nervous system compensates distinctly for delay and noise#1005543
• Biomechanical Muscle Properties and Balance in Children With Spastic Hemiplegia#807593
• Vibration Effects on Gait and Balance in CP#1112391
• Haptic Meditation Enhancement Device (HMED): An Arduino-Based Multi-Sensor Real-Time Monitoring and Intervention Support System.#367906