2nd Workshop on Evaluating Child Robot Interaction

Many researchers have started to explore natural interaction scenarios for children. No matter if these children are normally developing or have special needs, evaluating Child-Robot Interaction (CRI) is a challenge. To find methods that work well and provide reliable data is difficult, for example because commonly used methods such as questionnaires donot work well particularly with younger children. Previous research has shown that children need support in expressing how they feel about technology. Given this, researchers often choose time-consuming behavioral measures from observations to evaluate CRI. However, these are not necessarily comparable between studies and robots. This workshop aims to bring together researchers from differentdisciplines to share their experiences on these aspects. The main topics are methods to evaluate child-robot interaction design, methods to evaluate socially assistive child-robot interaction and multi-modal evaluation of child-robot interaction. Connected questions that we would like to tackle are for example: i) What are reliable metrics in CRI' ii) How can we overcome the pitfalls of survey methods in CRI' iii) How can we integrate qualitative approaches in CRI' iv) What are the best practices for in the wild studies with children? Looking across disciplinary boundaries, we want to discuss advantages and short-comings of using different evaluation methods in order to compile guidelines for future CRI research. This workshop is the second in a series that started at the International Conference on Social Robotics in 2015

Qualitative Research in HRI: A Review and Taxonomy

The field of human–robot interaction (HRI) is young and highly inter-disciplinary, and the approaches, standards and methods proper to it are still in the process of negotiation. This paper reviews the use of qualitative methods and approaches in the HRI literature in order to contribute to the development of a foundation of approaches and methodologies for these new research areas. In total, 73 papers that use qualitative methods were systematically reviewed. The review reveals that there is widespread use of qualitative methods in HRI, but very different approaches to reporting on it, and high variance in the rigour with which the approaches are applied. We also identify the key qualitative methods used. A major contribution of this paper is a taxonomy categorizing qualitative research in HRI in two dimensions: by ’study type’ and based on the specific qualitative method use

Design for Child-Robot Play The implications of Design Research within the field of Human-Robot Interaction studies for Children

This thesis investigates the intersections of three disciplines, that are Design Research, Human-Robot Interaction studies, and Child Studies. In particular, this doctoral research is focused on two research questions, namely, what is (or might be) the role of design research in HRI? And, how to design acceptable and desirable child-robot play applications? The first chapter introduces an overview of the mutual interest between robotics and design that is at the basis of the research. On the one hand, the interest of design toward robotics is documented through some exemplary projects from artists and designers that speculate on the human-robot coexistence condition. Vice versa, the robotics interest toward design is documented by referring to some tracks of robotic conferences, scienti c workshops and robotics journals which focused on the design-robotics relationship. Finally, a brief description of the background conditions that characterized this doctoral research are introduced, such as the fact of being a research founded by a company. The second chapter provides an overview of the state of the art of the intersections between three multidisciplinary disciplines. First, a de nition of Design Research is provided, together with its main trends and open issues. Then, the review focuses on the contribution of Design Research to the HRI eld, which can be summed up in actions focused on three aspects: artefacts, stakeholders, and contexts. This is followed by a focus on the role of Design Research within the context of children studies, in which it is possible to identify two main design-child relationships: design as a method for developing children’s learning experiences; and children as part of the design process for developing novel interactive systems. The third chapter introduces the Research through Design (RtD) approach and its relevance in conducting design research in HRI. The proposed methodology, based on this approach, is particularly characterized by the presence of design explorations as study methods. These, in turn, are developed through a common project’s methodology, also reported in this chapter. The fourth chapter is dedicated to the analysis of the scenario in which the child-robot interaction takes place. This was aimed at understanding what is edutainment robotics for children, its common features, how it relates to existing children play types, and where the interaction takes place. The chapter provides also a focus on the relationship between children and technology on a more general level, through which two themes and relative design opportunities were identi ed: physically active play and objects-to-think-with. These were respectively addressed in the two design explorations presented in this thesis: Phygital Play and Shybo. The Phygital Play project consists of an exploration of natural interaction modalities with robots, through mixed-reality, for fostering children’s active behaviours. To this end, a game platform was developed for allowing children to play with or against a robot, through body movement. Shybo, instead, is a low-anthropomorphic robot for playful learning activities with children that can be carried out in educational contexts. The robot, which reacts to properties of the physical environment, is designed to support different kinds of experiences. Then, the chapter eight is dedicated to the research outcomes, that were de ned through a process of reflection. The contribution of the research was analysed and documented by focusing on three main levels, namely: artefact, knowledge and theory. The artefact level corresponds to the situated implementations developed through the projects. The knowledge level consists of a set of actionable principles, emerged from the results and lessons learned from the projects. At the theory level, a theoretical framework was proposed with the aim of informing the future design of child- robot play applications. Thelastchapterprovidesa naloverviewofthe doctoral research, a series of limitations regarding the research, its process and its outcomes, and some indications for future research

ENGAGEMENT RECOGNITION WITHIN ROBOT-ASSISTED AUTISM THERAPY

Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition typically diagnosed in early childhood, which is characterized by challenges in using language and understanding abstract concepts, effective communication, and building social relationships. The utilization of social robots in autism therapy represents a significant area of research. An increasing number of studies explore the use of social robots as mediators between therapists and children diagnosed with autism. Assessing a child’s engagement can enhance the effectiveness of robot-assisted interventions while also providing an objective metric for later analysis. The thesis begins with a comprehensive multiple-session study involving 11 children diagnosed with autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This study employs multi-purposeful robot activities designed to target various aspects of autism. The study yields both quantitative and qualitative findings based on four behavioural measures that were obtained from video recordings of the sessions. Statistical analysis reveals that adaptive therapy provides a longer engagement duration as compared to non-adaptive therapy sessions. Engagement is a key element in evaluating autism therapy sessions that are needed for acquiring knowledge and practising new skills necessary for social and cognitive development. With the aim to create an engagement recognition model, this research work also involves the manual labelling of collected videos to generate a QAMQOR dataset. This dataset comprises 194 therapy sessions, spanning over 48 hours of video recordings. Additionally, it includes demographic information for 34 children diagnosed with ASD. It is important to note that videos of 23 children with autism were collected from previous records. The QAMQOR dataset was evaluated using standard machine learning and deep learning approaches. However, the development of an accurate engagement recognition model remains challenging due to the unique personal characteristics of each individual with autism. In order to address this challenge and improve recognition accuracy, this PhD work also explores a data-driven model using transfer learning techniques. Our study contributes to addressing the challenges faced by machine learning in recognizing engagement among children with autism, such as diverse engagement activities, multimodal raw data, and the resources and time required for data collection. This research work contributes to the growing field of using social robots in autism therapy by illuminating an understanding of the importance of adaptive therapy and providing valuable insights into engagement recognition. The findings serve as a foundation for further advancements in personalized and effective robot-assisted interventions for individuals with autism