Humanoid robot Intervention with Autism: The Conceptual Model in Demonstrating the Emotional Responses of Children with Autism

AbstractVisual Perspective Taking (VPT) is the ability to see the world from another person’s perspective, taking into account what they see and how they see it, drawing upon both spatial and social information. Children with autism often find it difficult to understand that other people might have perspectives, viewpoints, beliefs and knowledge that are different from their own, which is a fundamental aspect of VPT. In this research we aimed to develop a methodology to assist children with autism develop their VPT skills using a humanoid robot and present results from our first long-term pilot study. The games we devised were implemented with the Kaspar robot and, to our knowledge, this is the first attempt to improve the VPT skills of children with autism through playing and interacting with a humanoid robot.We describe in detail the standard pre- and post-assessments that we performed with the children in order to measure their progress and also the inclusion criteria derived fromthe results for future studies in this field. Our findings suggest that some children may benefit from this approach of learning about VPT, which shows that this approach merits further investigation.

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Using a Humanoid Robot to Elicit Body Awareness and Appropriate Physical Interaction in Children with Autism

International Journal of Social Robotics ◽

10.1007/s12369-014-0250-2 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 265-278 ◽

Cited By ~ 46

Author(s):

Sandra Costa ◽

Hagen Lehmann ◽

Kerstin Dautenhahn ◽

Ben Robins ◽

Filomena Soares

Keyword(s):

Humanoid Robot ◽

Children With Autism ◽

Body Awareness ◽

Physical Interaction

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Exploration of Human Reactions to a Humanoid Robot in Public STEM Education

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting ◽

10.1177/1541931213601796 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 61 (1) ◽

pp. 1262-1266 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Lixiao Huang ◽

Daniel McDonald ◽

Douglas Gillan

Keyword(s):

Face Recognition ◽

Stem Education ◽

School Children ◽

Humanoid Robot ◽

School Setting ◽

Emotional Responses ◽

Direct Interaction ◽

Humanoid Robots ◽

Behavioral Patterns ◽

Educational Value

The service and entertainment industry advocates the possibility of using humanoid robots; however, direct interaction experience is uncommon. To understand humans’ interactions with humanoid robots, the present study used a robot capable of face recognition and conversation in a park and a school setting to explore the behavioral patterns of humans, dialog themes, and emotional responses. Results showed that humans’ behavioral patterns included looking at the robot, talking to the robot, talking to others about the robot, and adults taking photos. School children showed strong interest to interact with the robot and rich emotional responses. Major dialog themes included greeting, asking about the robot’s identity, testing the robot’s knowledge and capabilities, asking and replying about preferences and opinions, and correcting the robot’s errors. Observed emotional responses included liking, surprise, excitement, fright, frustration, and awkwardness. Humans interacted with the robot similarly to how they would interact with other humans but also differently. The educational value and design implication for humanoid robots are discussed.

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