A huggable, mobile robot for developmental disorder interventions in a multi-modal interaction space

We propose a new emotional, huggable, mobile, and configurable robot (Teo), which can address some of the still open therapeutic needs in the treatment of Developmental Disability (DD). Teo has been designed in partnership with a team of DD specialists, and it is meant to be used as an efficient and easy-to-use tool for caregivers. Teo is integrated with virtual worlds shown on large displays or projections and with external motion sensing devices to support various forms of full-body interaction and to engage DD persons in a variety of play activities that blend the digital and physical world and can be fully customized by therapists to meet the requirements of each single subject. Exploratory studies have been performed at two rehabilitation centres to investigate the potential of our approach. The positive results of these studies pinpoint that our system endeavors promising opportunities to offer new forms of interventions for DD people

Design of a Huggable Social Robot with Affective Expressions Using Projected Images

We introduce Pepita, a caricatured huggable robot capable of sensing and conveying affective expressions by means of tangible gesture recognition and projected avatars. This study covers the design criteria, implementation and performance evaluation of the different characteristics of the form and function of this robot. The evaluation involves: (1) the exploratory study of the different features of the device, (2) design and performance evaluation of sensors for affective interaction employing touch, and (3) design and implementation of affective feedback using projected avatars. Results showed that the hug detection worked well for the intended application and the affective expressions made with projected avatars were appropriated for this robot. The questionnaires analyzing users’ perception provide us with insights to guide the future designs of similar interfaces

Influence of Reaction Time in the Emotional Response of a Companion Robot to a Child's Aggressive Interaction

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Development of the huggable social robot Probo: on the conceptual design and software architecture

This dissertation presents the development of a huggable social robot named Probo. Probo embodies a stuffed imaginary animal, providing a soft touch and a huggable appearance. Probo's purpose is to serve as a multidisciplinary research platform for human-robot interaction focused on children. In terms of a social robot, Probo is classified as a social interface supporting non-verbal communication. Probo's social skills are thereby limited to a reactive level. To close the gap with higher levels of interaction, an innovative system for shared control with a human operator is introduced. The software architecture de nes a modular structure to incorporate all systems into a single control center. This control center is accompanied with a 3D virtual model of Probo, simulating all motions of the robot and providing a visual feedback to the operator. Additionally, the model allows us to advance on user-testing and evaluation of newly designed systems. The robot reacts on basic input stimuli that it perceives during interaction. The input stimuli, that can be referred to as low-level perceptions, are derived from vision analysis, audio analysis, touch analysis and object identification. The stimuli will influence the attention and homeostatic system, used to de ne the robot's point of attention, current emotional state and corresponding facial expression. The recognition of these facial expressions has been evaluated in various user-studies. To evaluate the collaboration of the software components, a social interactive game for children, Probogotchi, has been developed. To facilitate interaction with children, Probo has an identity and corresponding history. Safety is ensured through Probo's soft embodiment and intrinsic safe actuation systems. To convey the illusion of life in a robotic creature, tools for the creation and management of motion sequences are put into the hands of the operator. All motions generated from operator triggered systems are combined with the motions originating from the autonomous reactive systems. The resulting motion is subsequently smoothened and transmitted to the actuation systems. With future applications to come, Probo is an ideal platform to create a friendly companion for hospitalised children

Can my robotic home cleaner be happy? Issues about emotional expression in non-bio-inspired robots.

In many robotic applications a robot body should have a functional shape that cannot include bio-inspired elements, but it would still be important that the robot can express emotions, moods, or a character, to make it acceptable, and to involve its users. Dynamic signals from movement can be exploited to provide this expression, while the robot is acting to perform its task. A research effort has been started to find general emotion expression models for actions that could be applied to any kind of robot to obtain believable and easily detectable emotional expressions. On his path, the need for a unified representation of emotional expression emerged. A framework to define action characteristics that could be used to represent emotions is proposed in this paper. Guidelines are provided to identify quantitative models and numerical values for parameters, which can be used to design and engineer emotional robot actions. A set of robots having different shapes, movement possibilities, and goals have been implemented following these guidelines. Thanks to the proposed framework, different models to implement emotional expression could now be compared in a sound way. The question mentioned in the title can now be answered in a justified way

Accessibility requirements for human-robot interaction for socially assistive robots

Mención Internacional en el título de doctorPrograma de Doctorado en Ciencia y Tecnología Informática por la Universidad Carlos III de MadridPresidente: María Ángeles Malfaz Vázquez.- Secretario: Diego Martín de Andrés.- Vocal: Mike Wal

Emotional design and human-robot interaction

Recent years have shown an increase in the importance of emotions applied to the Design field - Emotional Design. In this sense, the emotional design aims to elicit (e.g., pleasure) or prevent (e.g., displeasure) determined emotions, during human product interaction. That is, the emotional design regulates the emotional interaction between the individual and the product (e.g., robot). Robot design has been a growing area whereby robots are interacting directly with humans in which emotions are essential in the interaction. Therefore, this paper aims, through a non-systematic literature review, to explore the application of emotional design, particularly on Human-Robot Interaction. Robot design features (e.g., appearance, expressing emotions and spatial distance) that affect emotional design are introduced. The chapter ends with a discussion and a conclusion.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Affective robotics for socio-emotional development in children with autism spectrum disorders

Tese de doutoramento do Programa Doutoral em Engenharia Eletrónica e de ComputadoresAutism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are a group of complex developmental disorders of the brain. Individuals affected by this disorder are characterized by repetitive patterns of behaviour, restricted activities or interests, and impairments in social communication. The use of robots had already been proven to encourage the promotion of social interaction and skills lacking in children with ASD. The main goal of this thesis is to study the influence of humanoid robots to develop socio-emotional skills in children with ASD. The investigation demonstrates the potential benefits a robotic tool provides to attract the attention of children with ASD, and therefore use that focus to develop further skills. The main focus of this thesis is divided into three topics. The first topic concerns the use of a robot to encourage learning appropriate physical social engagement, and to facilitate the ability to acquire knowledge about human body parts. The results show that the robot proved to be a useful tool, attracting the children’s attention and improving their knowledge about human body parts. The second topic regards the process of designing game scenarios to be used with children with ASD, targeting the promotion of emotion recognition skills. Three game scenarios were developed based on the expertise of professionals and they were successfully tested in pilot studies. Finally, the last topic presents two child-robot interaction studies with a large sample. They examine the use of a humanoid robot as a tool to teach recognition and labelling of emotions. The first study focuses on verbal and non-verbal communicative behaviours as measures to evaluate the social interaction and children interacting with the robot displayed more non-verbal behaviours indicating social engagement. The second study analyses the children’s attention patterns, and the children’s performance in the game scenarios previously designed. Along the sessions, the children increased their eye contact with the experimenter and in the study comparing the use of the robot with a traditional intervention, children who performed the game scenarios with the robot and the experimenter had a significantly better performance than the children who performed the game scenarios without the robot. The main conclusions of this research support that a humanoid robot is a useful tool to develop socio-emotional skills in the intervention of children with ASD, due to the engagement and positive learning outcome observed.As Perturbações do Espectro do Autismo (PEA) são um distúrbio complexo do desenvolvimento do cérebro. Os indivíduos afetados por esse transtorno são caracterizados por padrões repetitivos do comportamento, atividades ou interesses restritos e dificuldades na comunicação social. A utilização de robôs já provou ser um estímulo promovendo a interação social e competências em falta nestes indivíduos. O objetivo principal desta tese é estudar a influência de robôs humanoides para desenvolver competências sócio emocionais em crianças com PEA. A investigação demonstra os potenciais benefícios de uma ferramenta robótica para atrair a atenção de crianças com PEA e utilizar esta atenção para desenvolver outras competências. O foco principal desta tese está dividido em três tópicos. O primeiro tópico consiste na utilização de um robô para incentivar a aprendizagem sobre a interação físico-social apropriada e para facilitar a aquisição de conhecimento sobre partes do corpo. Os resultados mostram que o robô provou ser uma ferramenta útil, atraindo a atenção das crianças e melhorando o seu conhecimento sobre partes do corpo. A segunda parte refere-se ao processo de construção de atividades para serem utilizadas com crianças com PEA, promovendo competências de reconhecimento de emoções. Três atividades foram desenvolvidas com base na opinião de profissionais e foram testadas em estudo piloto com sucesso. Finalmente, o último tópico apresenta dois estudos de interação criança-robô examinando a utilização de um robô humanoide como ferramenta para ensinar reconhecimento e identificação de emoções. O primeiro estudo foca a comunicação verbal e não-verbal como medidas de avaliação da interação social e as crianças que interagiram com o robô mostraram mais comportamentos não-verbais que indicam interação social. O segundo estudo analisa os padrões de atenção e o desempenho das crianças nas atividades concebidas anteriormente. Ao longo das sessões, as crianças aumentaram o contacto ocular com o experimentador e no estudo que comparou a utilização do robô com intervenção tradicional, as crianças que realizaram as atividades com o robô e o experimentador tiveram um desempenho significativamente melhor do que as crianças que realizaram as ativdades sem o robô. As conclusões principais desta investigação suportam que um robô humanoide foi uma ferramenta útil para desenvolver competências sócio emocionais na intervenção de crianças com PEA, devido à interação e resultados positivos de aprendizagem observados.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) in the scope of the project: PEst-OE/EEI/UI0319/2014.This work was performed in part under the R&D project RIPD/ADA/109407/2009.SFRH/BD/71600/2010 scholarship

What is the level of evidence for the use of currently available technologies in facilitating the self-management of difficulties associated with ADHD in children and young people? A systematic review

A number of technologies to help self-manage Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children and young people (YP) have been developed. This review will assess the level of evidence for the use of such technologies. The review was undertaken in accordance with the general principles recommended in the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis. 7545 studies were screened. Fourteen studies of technology that aim to manage difficulties associated with ADHD in children and YP were included. Primary outcome measures were measures that assessed difficulties related to ADHD. Databases searched were MEDLINE, Web of Science (Core collection), CINAHL, the Cochrane Library, ProQuest ASSIA, PsycINFO and Scopus. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed. This review highlights the potential for the use of technology in paediatric ADHD self-management. However, it also demonstrates that current research lacks robustness; using small sample sizes, non-validated outcome measures and little psychoeducation component. Future research is required to investigate the value of technology in supporting children and YP with ADHD and a focus psychoeducation is needed

Safe and Adaptive Social Robots for Children with Autism

Social robots are being considered to be a part of the therapy for children with autism due to the reported efficacy such technology in improving the outcomes. How ever, children diagnosed with autism exhibit challenging behaviors that could cause harm to themselves and to others around them. Throwing, hitting, kicking, and self harming are some examples of the challenging behaviors that were reported to occur among this population. The occurrence of such behaviors during the presence of a social robot could raise some safety concerns. For this reason, this research attempts toidentify the potential for harm due to the diffusion of social robots and investigate means to mitigate them. Considering the advancement in technology and the progress made in many computer science disciplines are making small and adaptable social robots a foreseeable possibility, the studies presented here focus on small robotic form factors.The first study quantities the potential harm to the head due to one of the identi?ed risky scenarios that might occur between a child and a social robot. The results re leaved that the overall harm levels based on the selected severity indices are relatively low compared to their respective thresholds. However, the investigation of harm due to throwing of a small social robot to the head revealed that it could potentially causet issue injuries, sub-concussive or even concussive events in extreme cases. The second two studies are aimed to make small robots safer by optimizing their design. Hence,studies are conducted investigating how robot design can be made safer by investigating different design factors. The study investigated the in?uence of the mass and shape on the linear acceleration of a developed dummy head. The results revealed that the two design factors considered (i.e. mass and shape) affected the resultant response. The second study investigated the in offence three different soft material sonthesa meresponse. The endings showed that the control factors considered are not statistically significant in attenuating the response. Finally, the last two studies attempt to make small robots more adaptable to promote safer interactions. This is carried out by em bedding the recognition of unwanted physical interactions into companion robot with the appropriate timing of responses. The findings of the first study highlight the pos sibility of characterizing children's negative interactions with robotic toys relying on accelerometer sensor. The second study showed that producing a late response to an action (i.e. greater than 1.0 s) could negatively affect the children's comprehension of the intended message. The work presented in this dissertation is multidisciplinary that involves the field of Mechanical Engineering and Information Technology