12 research outputs found
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
The DREAM Dataset: Supporting a data-driven study of autism spectrum disorder and robot enhanced therapy
We present a dataset of behavioral data recorded from 61 children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The data was collected during a large-scale evaluation of Robot Enhanced Therapy (RET). The dataset covers over 3000 therapy sessions and more than 300 hours of therapy. Half of the children interacted with the social robot NAO supervised by a therapist. The other half, constituting a control group, interacted directly with a therapist. Both groups followed the Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) protocol. Each session was recorded with three RGB cameras and two RGBD (Kinect) cameras, providing detailed information of children’s behavior during therapy. This public release of the dataset comprises body motion, head position and orientation, and eye gaze variables, all specified as 3D data in a joint frame of reference. In addition, metadata including participant age, gender, and autism diagnosis (ADOS) variables are included. We release this data with the hope of supporting further data-driven studies towards improved therapy methods as well as a better understanding of ASD in general.CC BY 4.0DREAM - Development of robot-enhanced therapy for children with autism spectrum disorders
A survey of expectations about the role of robots in robot-assisted therapy for children with ASD: Ethical acceptability, trust, sociability, appearance, and attachment
The use of robots in therapy for children with autism spectrum disorder
(ASD) raises issues concerning the ethical and social acceptability of this technology
and, more generally, about human–robot interaction. However, usually
philosophical papers on the ethics of human–robot-interaction do not take into
account stakeholders’ views; yet it is important to involve stakeholders in order to
render the research responsive to concerns within the autism and autism therapy
community. To support responsible research and innovation in this field, this paper
identifies a range of ethical, social and therapeutic concerns, and presents and
discusses the results of an exploratory survey that investigated these issues and
explored stakeholders’ expectations about this kind of therapy. We conclude that
although in general stakeholders approve of using robots in therapy for children
with ASD, it is wise to avoid replacing therapists by robots and to develop and use
robots that have what we call supervised autonomy. This is likely to create more
trust among stakeholders and improve the quality of the therapy. Moreover, our
research suggests that issues concerning the appearance of the robot need to be
adequately dealt with by the researchers and therapists. For instance, our survey
suggests that zoomorphic robots may be less problematic than robots that look too
much like humans