Autism Spectrum Disorder Therapy: Analysis of Artificial Intelligence integrated Robotic Approach

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a developmental disorder that may manifest in a myriad of ways such as difficulties in social interaction and a tendency to engage in repetitive patterns of behaviour. Over the years, several kinds of treatment protocols have been proposed and implemented. One such area that is attracting the attention of researchers in the field is a robot-based approach in the treatment of children diagnosed with the disorder. Here we propose a viable method via the integration of apex technological methods like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Medical Robotics, coupling it with problem specific algorithms in OpenCV along with principles of Applied Behavioural Analysis to help possibly alleviate a key symptom displayed by children in terms of level of social interaction - that of eye-contact. This would be achieved via an AI-integrated Robotic Framework. The project also considers the possibility of inclusion of the growing research field of Quantum Computing to realize the process and investigates its viability as a potential source of innovation in the future.

A scoping review of artificial intelligence-based robot therapy for children with disabilities

“…The use of a socially assistive robot (SAR) is designed to interact with and assist humans in a social and therapeutic context. This SAR adjusts its behaviour based on a child's interactions and responses, allowing for greater flexibility in treatment location [34], [35]. SAR with an expressive humanoid design.…”

“…The use of CNNs for facial feature extraction is widely recognised as a powerful tool in the field of computer vision. This is mainly due to the inherent ability of CNNs to autonomously capture hierarchical features from images [34].…”

“…The effectiveness of the therapy was evaluated by examining the average amount of time children with ASD were able to maintain eye contact in various settings and contrasting the children's performance in maintaining eye contact in an environment with interactive robots with that in a typical classroom. The duration and frequency of eye contact were used as quantitative measurements to evaluate the efficacy of the therapy [34]. Through a comparative analysis of the pre-and post-intervention test outcomes, as well as an examination of the behavioural and physiological data, it was observed that the CBT protocol exhibited a tendency towards enhanced emotional skills in children diagnosed with ASD.…”

“…The SAR system used to collect data on children's eye contact behaviour, with a particular emphasis on measuring the duration and frequency of eye contact [34]. This method made it possible to collect a large amount of data that shows how children interact with their surroundings, especially in reaction to SAR.…”