A Pilot Study with a Novel Setup for Collaborative Play of the Humanoid Robot KASPAR with children with autism

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.This article describes a pilot study in which a novel experimental setup, involving an autonomous humanoid robot, KASPAR, participating in a collaborative, dyadic video game, was implemented and tested with children with autism, all of whom had impairments in playing socially and communicating with others. The children alternated between playing the collaborative video game with a neurotypical adult and playing the same game with the humanoid robot, being exposed to each condition twice. The equipment and experimental setup were designed to observe whether the children would engage in more collaborative behaviours while playing the video game and interacting with the adult than performing the same activities with the humanoid robot. The article describes the development of the experimental setup and its first evaluation in a small-scale exploratory pilot study. The purpose of the study was to gain experience with the operational limits of the robot as well as the dyadic video game, to determine what changes should be made to the systems, and to gain experience with analyzing the data from this study in order to conduct a more extensive evaluation in the future. Based on our observations of the childrens’ experiences in playing the cooperative game, we determined that while the children enjoyed both playing the game and interacting with the robot, the game should be made simpler to play as well as more explicitly collaborative in its mechanics. Also, the robot should be more explicit in its speech as well as more structured in its interactions. Results show that the children found the activity to be more entertaining, appeared more engaged in playing, and displayed better collaborative behaviours with their partners (For the purposes of this article, ‘partner’ refers to the human/robotic agent which interacts with the children with autism. We are not using the term’s other meanings that refer to specific relationships or emotional involvement between two individuals.) in the second sessions of playing with human adults than during their first sessions. One way of explaining these findings is that the children’s intermediary play session with the humanoid robot impacted their subsequent play session with the human adult. However, another longer and more thorough study would have to be conducted in order to better re-interpret these findings. Furthermore, although the children with autism were more interested in and entertained by the robotic partner, the children showed more examples of collaborative play and cooperation while playing with the human adult.Peer reviewe

Tactile Interactions with a Humanoid Robot : Novel Play Scenario Implementations with Children with Autism

Acknowledgments: This work has been partially supported by the European Commission under contract number FP7-231500-ROBOSKIN. Open Access: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.The work presented in this paper was part of our investigation in the ROBOSKIN project. The project has developed new robot capabilities based on the tactile feedback provided by novel robotic skin, with the aim to provide cognitive mechanisms to improve human-robot interaction capabilities. This article presents two novel tactile play scenarios developed for robot-assisted play for children with autism. The play scenarios were developed against specific educational and therapeutic objectives that were discussed with teachers and therapists. These objectives were classified with reference to the ICF-CY, the International Classification of Functioning – version for Children and Youth. The article presents a detailed description of the play scenarios, and case study examples of their implementation in HRI studies with children with autism and the humanoid robot KASPAR.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Mapping Robots to Therapy and Educational Objectives for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

The aim of this study was to increase knowledge on therapy and educational objectives professionals work on with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and to identify corresponding state of the art robots. Focus group sessions (n = 9) with ASD professionals (n = 53) from nine organisations were carried out to create an objectives overview, followed by a systematic literature study to identify state of the art robots matching these objectives. Professionals identified many ASD objectives (n = 74) in 9 different domains. State of the art robots addressed 24 of these objectives in 8 domains. Robots can potentially be applied to a large scope of objectives for children with ASD. This objectives overview functions as a base to guide development of robot interventions for these children

Embolización portal hepática preoperatoria con lipiodol y gelatina absorbible

Objetivo: Describir los resultados de la embolización portal hepática (EPH) preoperatoria con lipiodol y gelatina absorbible para generar hipertrofia hepática y permitir la hepatectomía derecha en pacientes con tumores hepáticos e hígado remanente futuro insuficiente. Materiales y métodos: Entre marzo de 2002 y abril de 2014, en 18 pacientes candidatos a hepatectomía derecha se realizó EPH con lipiodol y esponja de gelatina absorbible mezclada con contraste yodado. La estimación de los volúmenes hepáticos preembolización se hizo por tomografía computada con contraste endovenoso. Los pacientes fueron abordados mediante punción percutánea bajo guía ecográfica, seguida de angiografía. El control de la hipertrofia con estimación del volumen se realizó a la cuarta semana posembolización y el seguimiento se llevó a cabo ambulatoriamente o mediante historia clínica. Resultados: La mediana de edad fue de 58 años (relación hombre/mujer de 1:0,8) y el volumen hepático total estimado (mediana) de 1587,75 cm3. La estimación previa del volumen hepático y su relación con la porción futura remanente pre-EPH fue de 19,9%, mientras que el promedio absoluto de crecimiento del parénquima hepático remanente futuro pos-EPH se encontró entre los 306,2 y 475,2 cm3, con un 43,5% de aumento. La mediana de incremento de la relación volumen hepático total y la porción remanente pos-EPH fue de 8,5% (p < 0,001). Como complicaciones, se registró un hematoma y una necrosis aséptica. Conclusión: La EPH con lipiodol y esponja de gelatina absorbible es un procedimiento seguro y efectivo, que surge como alternativa a otros materiales de embolización