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Touch is one of the most fundamental ways humans communicate emotion, intention, and connection. As social robots increasingly enter daily life, in hospitals, classrooms, care facilities, and private homes, the capacity to sense, understand, and react appropriately to touch becomes essential for creating interactions that feel natural, intuitive, and socially meaningful. This workshop examines the central function of touch in social robotics, moving beyond verbal communication to explore how haptic interfaces and embodied interaction frameworks influence the ways robots relate to people. Bringing together renowned researchers in tactile sensing, affective haptics, physical human–robot interaction, and embodied cognition, the workshop invites participants to reflect on the latest scientific advances and open challenges. Through expert talks and in-depth discussions, attendees will gain insight into how tactile perception can be embedded into robotic systems, how touch can guide behavior and communication, and what ethical, social, and technical considerations must be addressed when enabling robots to engage physically with humans.

At its core, the workshop aims to spark interdisciplinary exchange across robotics, neuroscience, psychology, and design. It seeks to advance a key guiding question: What does it mean for a robot to touch, and how does this reshape the landscape of human–robot interaction? The program will explore a wide range of touch modalities, including force, pressure, vibration, temperature, and multimodal sensing enabled by emerging artificial skin technologies. It will also highlight progress in soft robotic materials, wearable haptic systems, and distributed tactile perception, considering how these innovations support affective communication, safety, and adaptability in physical interaction. Special attention will be given to the cognitive and computational models that allow robots to interpret the context of touch and respond in socially appropriate ways.