This thread is just interesting enough to give rise to my first ever post.
If I were you Slaver, and God willing I will be some day
, I would start by breaking the tickle-machine concept down into the mechanical and robotic (computer) elements. Firstly, what methods of tickling could a machine like this use?
Mechanical hand: Maybe a little too complex to be effective with any degree of erratic motion. Moving the hand over the body would be virtually impossible without laser guiding or some other high-tech solution, so it would need to remain stationary. Perhaps varying the speed of the fingers as they do a simple pass over the skin. You could also switch the order in which the fingers move, starting from pinky to pointer then going backwards then mixing it up some more.
Stroking device: Something with feathers or a back-scratcher I imagine would work best, but anything along those lines. I've never found feathers to be all that effective personally, but "different strokes for different folks". Since this is a linear movement it would be easy to program but again, erratic behaviour would be difficult to emulate. If it were localized to a relatively flat area of skin it might be able to move around more whilst still maintaining physical contact.
Poking\prodding device: I think this would be easiest, as you'd only need a rubber stopper on the end of a rod attached to a linear actuator or whatever it is you call it. My imagination exceeds my education. You could easily vary prodding force as well as speed over areas like the ribs and underarms. Even the feet and legs might be susceptible.
Rotary device: Just a brush attached to a spinning thingy. I'm sure I don't have to describe it we've all seen the idea in tickling artwork and I'm sure we've all dreamed of its possible real-life application. A random event generator triggers it to rotate faster or slower and maybe it can move slightly closer or further from the body.
Scrubbing\rubbing device: I imagine a brush attached quite firmly to the body, even strapped particularly to an area such as the feet, which follows a linear path back and forth across that area. Variations would be in speed, again. You could use brushes with different levels of rigidness in their uh.. brush fibres? Dammit I can't even remember the word for them now.
Vibrating device: An electric toothbrush placed between every toe for starters. I think this might be the easiest to replicate. Can someone tell me how I might be able to cannibalize the vibrating mechanism from my Xbox controllers? :lol You could vary the strength of the vibration as well as the motions. In fact you could combine the vibrator with a number of the other simpler devices, so they can either scrub or poke.
String-pulling device: Along the same vein as pulling string between the victim's toes. Starting to run out of ideas methinks... Can't do anything too complicated though. Most of the tickling machine artwork I have involves mechanical hands.
Squeezing device: This could be a mechanical hand or any sort of clamp that applies gentle pressure to a sensitive area, possible toes, ribs, thighs or hips. With variations in strength and frequency of change (obviously within limits that prevent physical harm to the victim) I believe this could prove to be quite effective at producing random results.
For these devices to be most effective, the victim would have to be almost entirely immobilized, or the device would have to be attached to the body.
Concerning the robotic aspect, the programming I imagine would be incredibly easy if you know what you're doing. For each action that can be varied (strength of a vibration, speed of movement etc.) you would have a program that randomly spits out a number within a predefined range. It then tests the current value of the device then makes the necessary changes (+ or -) to reach the new value. You would also need global random generators to determine which values are changed and when. With a little calibration to find a reasonable amount of "randomness", bingo! You have yourself a tickle machine. Although I think it would technically be a tickle robot. That depends on whether or not robots are defined as having mechanisms that respond to external stimuli. Now that would be a challenge.
