Human-Robot Teaming, Touch, and the Rise of Wearable Haptics

This episode explores how tactile feedback can make teleoperation more natural, safer, and more effective, and why touch is becoming central to human-robot teaming. Host Filippo Sanfilippo speaks with Guido Gioioso, CEO and co-founder of WEART, about moving haptic interfaces from university research into real products for XR, teleoperation, and shared autonomy.

Guests

Guido Gioioso

• CEO and co-founder of WEART, with a background in robotics, automation, and haptics

Filippo Sanfilippo

• Host and professor at the University of Agder, Norway

Key topics

From lab research to startup reality

• Guido shares how WEART grew out of the University of Siena, where the team worked on human hand sensing, wearable interfaces, prosthetics, and robotic manipulation.

Why touch was the missing channel

• In teleoperation, visual and audio feedback alone cannot reliably convey force, contact, texture, temperature, or stiffness.
• Guido explains that the skin is a high-bandwidth communication channel that is often underused in human-robot interaction.

How WEART products render multiple sensations

• The company’s TouchDiver Pro glove uses six contact points and can deliver forces, vibration-based texture cues, and thermal feedback.
• Guido describes how these channels can be combined or used independently depending on the task.

XR as the first market, robotics as the return

• WEART initially focused on VR and AR use cases such as training, safety, edutainment, medical, industrial, and design applications.
• The company is now moving back into robotics as humanoids and teleoperation gain momentum.

Embodiment through haptics

• Guido argues that touch helps transform teleoperation from “using a tool” into feeling like “inhabiting a body” at a distance.
• This reduces cognitive load and makes remote work feel more transparent and natural.

Shared autonomy instead of perfect one-to-one replication

• Both speakers discuss a middle ground between full autonomy and full human control.
• The robot can handle navigation, orientation, and obstacle avoidance while the human operator makes higher-level and final millimeter-level decisions.

Teleoperation as a training tool and a final use case

• In some scenarios, teleoperation is used to teach robots tasks so they can later act autonomously.
• In others, such as medical, nuclear, offshore, and high-risk industrial settings, teleoperation itself is the end goal.

Real-world deployments and safety

• Guido mentions applications where humans cannot safely enter, such as high-voltage maintenance and hazardous environments.
• The robotic system acts as a physical twin or extension of the operator, keeping humans central while improving safety.

The real challenge is usability

• Guido stresses that successful products must be comfortable, fast to wear, robust, repeatable, and practical for long sessions.
• The market rewards reliability and ease of use more than lab-grade peak performance.

The future of human-robot teams

• The conversation ends on a vision of robots as extensions of human capabilities, not replacements.
• The long-term goal is remote access to physical work, with reduced risk, lower cost, and less unnecessary travel.

Timestamps

00:00 - Introducing the podcast and today’s guest, Guido Gioioso

03:03 - WEART’s roots in Siena and the move from research to company building

04:53 - Starting in XR before returning to teleoperation and robotics

08:16 - Why touch adds essential information in remote manipulation

10:29 - Embodiment as the difference between a tool and a body

14:24 - TouchDiver Pro: a five-finger glove with six haptic contact points

15:25 - Using force, vibration, and thermal cues together in teleoperation

17:16 - How teleoperation helps train robots for autonomy

19:03 - Remote work in hazardous environments where autonomy is not enough

20:37 - Shared forces, shared space, and shared decisions in teaming

21:57 - Why shared autonomy is more realistic than perfect replication

23:48 - Using tactile feedback for informed, natural control loops

24:42 - Technical challenges: sensors, actuators, latency, and network quality

27:07 - Why comfort, ergonomics, battery life, and repeatability matter most

31:02 - A future of robots as extensions of human bodies

32:28 - Social and environmental benefits of remote physical work

33:53 - Closing thoughts on teaming and human-machine coexistence

Notable quotes

“The sense of touch was the missing part.”

“Embodiment means transforming something from a tool to be used to a body that you can inhabit.”

“We believe in robots that are extensions of human bodies, not replications of human bodies.”

WEART:

https://weart.it/