Energetic optimization of an autonomous mobile socially assistive robot for autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

The usage of socially assistive robots for autism therapies has increased in recent years. This novel therapeutic tool allows the specialist to keep track of the improvement in socially assistive tasks for autistic children, who hypothetically prefer object-based over human interactions. These kinds of tools also allow the collection of new information to early diagnose neurodevelopment disabilities. This work presents the integration of an output feedback adaptive controller for trajectory tracking and energetic autonomy of a mobile socially assistive robot for autism spectrum disorder under an event-driven control scheme. The proposed implementation integrates facial expression and emotion recognition algorithms to detect the emotions and identities of users (providing robustness to the algorithm since it automatically generates the missing input parameters, which allows it to complete the recognition) to detonate a set of adequate trajectories. The algorithmic implementation for the proposed socially assistive robot is presented and implemented in the Linux-based Robot Operating System. It is considered that the optimization of energetic consumption of the proposal is the main contribution of this work, as it will allow therapists to extend and adapt sessions with autistic children. The experiment that validates the energetic optimization of the proposed integration of an event-driven control scheme is presented.

Assisted Robots in Therapies for Children with Autism in Early Childhood

“…Searches based on the snowball technique were also carried out, reviewing the reference lists of articles already included for review in this work to verify the existence of additional non-emerging articles in databases. The age exclusion criterion was found to be the most relevant, eliminating some potential articles such as [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 17 , 19 , 20 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 28 , 29 , 32 , 35 ], which clearly showed the therapies performed, the robots used, and the relevant results provided.…”

“…In the field of robot-assisted intervention development, refs. [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ] address the need for personalised interventions. From attention assessment to influencing gaze and joint attention, these authors seek to provide long-term therapies in home environments.…”

Teacher wellbeing and retention: The impact of rapidly transforming learning and teaching with digital technologies

“…In addition, robots allow the user the infinite repetition of the activity, which is one of its ways of learning . Likewise, the robot can adapt its behaviors in real time to the participant's emotions (Fuentes-Alvarez et al, 2023). As for VR, the main advantage is the possibility to perform the activities in safe environments without suffering the negative effects of errors in a real environment (Moon & Ke, 2021).…”