Affordable Compact Humanoid Robot for Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism is a disorder that primarily affects the development of social and communication skills. Interacting with simple humanoid robots has been shown to improve the communication skills of autistic children. Currently, no robots capable of meeting these requirements are both low-cost and available for in-home use. This project produced a design and prototype of a humanoid robot that is non-threatening, affordable, portable, durable, and capable of interaction, and the electronic and control software were developed. This robot has the ability to track the child with its 3-DoF eyes and 3-DoF head, open and close its 1-DoF beak and 1-DoF each eyelids, and raise its 1-DoF each wings. These attributes will give it the ability to be used for therapy and assessment of children with autism

Combining Psychological and Engineering Approaches to Utilizing Social Robots with Children with Autism

Abstract-It is estimated that Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) affects 1 in 68 children

Head Impact Severity Measures for Small Social Robots Thrown During Meltdown in Autism

Social robots have gained a lot of attention recently as they have been reported to be effective in supporting therapeutic services for children with autism. However, children with autism may exhibit a multitude of challenging behaviors that could be harmful to themselves and to others around them. Furthermore, social robots are meant to be companions and to elicit certain social behaviors. Hence, the presence of a social robot during the occurrence of challenging behaviors might increase any potential harm. In this paper, we identified harmful scenarios that might emanate between a child and a social robot due to the manifestation of challenging behaviors. We then quantified the harm levels based on severity indices for one of the challenging behaviors (i.e. throwing of objects). Our results showed that the overall harm levels based on the selected severity indices are relatively low compared to their respective thresholds. However, our investigation of harm due to throwing of a small social robot to the head revealed that it could potentially cause tissue injuries, subconcussive or even concussive events in extreme cases. The existence of such behaviors must be accounted for and considered when developing interactive social robots to be deployed for children with autism.The work is supported by a research grant from Qatar University under the grant No. QUST-1-CENG-2018-7Scopu

Gaze trajectory prediction in the context of social robotics

Social robotics is an emerging field of robotics that focuses on the interactions between robots and humans. It has attracted much interest due to concerns about an aging society and the need for assistive environments. Within this context, this paper focuses on gaze control and eye tracking as a means for robot control. It aims to improve the usability of human–machine interfaces based on gaze control by developing advanced algorithms for predicting the trajectory of the human gaze. The paper proposes two approaches to gaze-trajectory prediction: probabilistic and symbolic. Both approaches use machine learning. The probabilistic method mixes two state models representing gaze locations and directions. The symbolic method treats the gaze-trajectory prediction problem similar to how word-prediction problems are handled in web browsers. Comparative experiments prove the feasibility of both approaches and show that the probabilistic approach achieves better prediction results

Feasibility of a smartphone application to identify young children at risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder in a low-income community setting in South Africa

Introduction and aims More than 90% of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) live in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) where there is a great need for culturally appropriate, scalable and effective early identification and intervention tools. Smartphone technology and application (‘apps’) may potentially play an important role in this regard. The Autism&Beyond iPhone App was designed as a potential screening tool for ASD risk in children aged 12-72 months. Here we investigated the technical feasibility and cultural acceptability of a smartphone app to determine risk for ASD in children aged 12-72 months in a naturalistic, low-income South African community setting. Methodology 37 typically-developing African children and their parents/carers were recruited from community centres in Khayelitsha Township, Cape Town, South Africa. We implemented a mixed-methods design, collecting both quantitative and qualitative data from participants in 2 stages. In stage 1, we collected quantitative data. With appropriate ethics and consent, parents completed a short technology questionnaire about their familiarity with and access to smartphones, internet and apps, followed by electronic iPhone-based demographic and ASD-related questionnaires. Next, children were shown 3 short videos of 30s each and a mirror stimulus on a study smartphone. The smartphone front facing (“selfie”) camera recorded video of the child’s facial expressions and head movement. Automated computer algorithms quantified positive emotions and time attending to stimuli. We validated the automatic coding by a) comparing the computer-generated analysis to human coding of facial expressions in a random sample (N=9), and b) comparing automated analysis of the South African data (N=33) with a matched American sample (N=33). In stage 2, a subset of families were invited to participate in focus group discussions to provide qualitative data on accessibility, acceptability, and cultural appropriateness of the app in their local community. Results Most parents (64%) owned a smartphone of which all (100%) were Android based, and many used Apps (45%). Human-automated coding showed excellent correlation for positive emotion (ICC= 0.95, 95% CI 0.81-0.99) and no statistically significant differences were observed between the South African and American sample in % time attending to the video stimuli. South African children, however, smiled less at the Toys&Rhymes (SA mean (SD) = 14% (24); USA mean (SD) = 31% (34); p=0.05) and Bunny video (SA mean (SD) = 12% (17); USA mean (SD) = 30% (0.27); p=0.006). Analysis of focus group data indicated that parents/carers found the App relatively easy to use, and would recommend it to others in their community provided the App and data transfer were free. Conclusion The results from this pilot study suggested the App to be technically accurate, accessible and culturally acceptable to families from a low-resource environment in South Africa. Given the differences in positive emotional response between the groups, careful consideration should be given to identify suitable stimuli if % time smiling is to be used as a global marker for autism risk across cultures and environments

PABI: Developing a New Robotic Platform for Autism Therapy

Autism Spectrum Disorder affects many children across the world. Through the use of Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) therapy, improvements in behavior and social outcomes have been observed. We have developed a new, robust, and durable research platform designed to interact with children through basic ABA therapy in order to test the effectiveness of robots in autism therapy. This platform is able to log therapy sessions while interacting with the child in an innovative way through multiple degrees of freedom. The platform is also designed to be expandable by future researchers with the ability to integrate both additional actuators and sensors. Lastly, the entire structure is modular in its construction, meaning entire modules can be removed and added in the future with minimal effort

El uso de tecnologías de la información y la comunicación en el tratamiento conductual de niños con TEA: una revisión sistemática

El TEA es un trastorno del neurodesarrollo que afecta a la interacción social y a la comunicación, y cuya prevalencia va en aumento. Existen distintos tipos de tratamiento, entre los que destaca la terapia conductual y, sobre todo, el análisis aplicado de la conducta (ABA). Las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TICs), como aplicaciones webs, robots o programas de ordenador, son utilizadas en la actualidad como soporte de la intervención conductual. Esta revisión sistemática pretendió conocer cuál es el estado actual del uso de estas tecnologías junto al tratamiento conductual en menores con TEA (de 2 a 17 años). Se revisó la literatura científica, seleccionando los artículos en base a una serie de criterios de inclusión. Se encontró que las tecnologías más usadas eran las de robot, ludificación, realidad aumentada, guion gráfico, aplicación web, aplicación móvil y procesamiento de imagen (vídeo), siendo la tecnología robot la que más favorecía la autonomía. Las conductas más trabajadas fueron la comunicación y la conducta social, mientras que la mayoría de los estudios encontraron mejoras o resultados positivos. Existe una gran variedad de tecnologías y aplicaciones, no obstante, son necesarios más diseños experimentales bien controlados que evalúen su efectividad

Los robots sociales como promotores de la comunicación en los Trastornos del Espectro Autista (TEA) = Robôs sociais como promotores da comunicação em Transtornos do Espectro Autista (TEA) = Social robots as promoters of communication in the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)

A complexidade do Transtorno do Espectro Autista e sua possível aparência levaram ao desenvolvimento durante a última década de um método de intervenção muito promissor: os robôs assistidos por terapia. O desenvolvimento tecnológico e os resultados promissores dos estudos realizados sobre o assunto, juntamente com a recente incorporação robótica no contexto educacional, fazem com que nós contemplemos a viabilidade de introduzir este método de intervenção no contexto educacional. O presente estudo demarca os últimos avanços deste método a partir da contribuição de especialistas e analisa as conseqüências positivas que os robôs sociais podem ter para o tratamento do transtorno do espectro autista. Nós fornecemos aqui uma nova visão da intervenção do autismo no contexto educaciona

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