Clothing for Robot Identity

In a future where robots are ubiquitous, clothing can help differentiate their various roles and identities. Robot clothes present the fields of human-computer interaction and interactive system design with the opportunity to more seriously consider the functional role of signaling and aesthetics in design. Drawing on the collaborative expertise of artists, soft roboticists, fashion designers, and HRI researchers, we examine how robot clothes implicitly signal messages from robots to humans: about their purpose, about their identity, about how they are meant to be engaged with. We identify three types of identity signaling: 1) group identity, 2) individual identity, and 3) role. This work shares a visual exploration of robots wearing clothes, with the intent of exemplifying how elements and principles of design (i.e., silhouette, color, material) work towards these signaling functions.