Collaborating with Kaspar: Using an autonomous humanoid robot to foster cooperative dyadic play among children with autism

Abstract

Abstract-This article describes a pilot study in which children with autism alternated between playing a cooperative, dyadic video game with an adult human and playing the same game with an autonomous humanoid robot. The purpose of the study was to determine whether the children, all of whom had difficulties communicating and engaging in social play with others, would display more collaborative behaviours when playing with an adult after playing and interacting with the humanoid robot. Based on our analysis of the children's behaviours while playing the cooperative game, our findings suggest that the children were more entertained, seemed more invested in the game, and collaborated better with their partners during their second sessions of playing with human adults than during their first. One possible explanation for this result is that the children's intermediary play session with the humanoid robot had an impact on their subsequent play session with the adult. Additionally, while the autistic children saw the robotic partner as being more interesting and entertaining, they played more collaboratively and cooperated better with the human adult.

Proprioceptive and Kinematic Profiles for Customized Human‐ Robot Interaction for People Suffering from Autism

“…Children with ASD show a great affinity for robots, computers, and mechanical components [3]. In the field of socially assistive robotics (SAR), robots are used as tools in socialization therapies for children with ASD in order to enhance social engagement, imitation, and joint attention skills [4][5][6][7].…”

Imitation of Dynamic Walking with BSN for a Humanoid Robot

“…In this work, similarity between the two movements is enforced by the cost function of the proposed framework that maximizes similarity between human angle trajectories and robot trajectories as described in (3) and (4). Thus, the similarity between the angle trajectories of human and robot is examined in order to assess the similarity between the motions.…”

“…UMANOID robots have been used in a wide range of applications that require human-robot interaction including entertainment [1,2,3], healthcare [4,5], and assistive living [6]. They have also been used for assisting children with learning difficulties [7] to encourage social interaction [8,9] and provide verbal and/or physical encouragement [10].…”

Psychophysiological analysis of a pedagogical agent and robotic peer for individuals with autism spectrum disorders.

“…The study done by Wainer and Dautenhahn reported in [101] describes an experiment in which six children with ASD played a dyadic video game alternatingly with an adult and KASPAR, in four 25-minute sessions over a period of three weeks. The two players had to stand on opposite sides of a single flatbed computer monitor, while taking turns and communicating with each other, either verbally or by pressing buttons, to decide which of the many shapes on the screen both of them would select.…”

“…happy, neutral, sad, and surprise), and gestures to interact with a human [97]. Case study evaluations suggest that KASPAR can encourage children to engage in social interactions with peers or adults [98][99][100][101].…”