Assistive Technology to Improve Collaboration in Children with ASD: State-of-the-Art and Future Challenges in the Smart Products Sector

Within the field of products for autism spectrum disorder, one of the main research areas is focused on the development of assistive technology. Mid and high-tech products integrate interactive and smart functions with multisensory reinforcements, making the user experience more intuitive, adaptable, and dynamic. These products have a very significant impact on improving the skills of children with autism, including collaboration and social skills, which are essential for the integration of these children into society and, therefore, their well-being. This work carried out an exhaustive analysis of the scientific literature, as well as market research and trends, and patent analysis to explore the state-of-the-art of assistive technology and smart products for children with ASD, specifically those aimed at improving social and communication skills. The results show a reduced availability of products that act as facilitators of the special needs of children with ASD, which is even more evident for products aimed at improving collaboration skills. Products that allow the participation of several users simultaneously through multi-user interfaces are required. On top of this, the trend toward virtual environments is leading to a loss of material aspects in the design that are essential for the development of these children

ASDesign: A User-Centered Method for the Design of Assistive Technology That Helps Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders Be More Independent in Their Daily Routines

COVID-19 has posed new physical and mental challenges for the population worldwide, establishing social and structural changes in the labor market that could be maintained and implemented permanently. This new reality will require new strategies to improve family and work conciliation, which is especially challenging for families with children suffering from psychological pathologies such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). These changes have led to more frequent and intense behavioral problems, causing stress, anxiety, and confusion for these children and their families. Thus, the need to have tools that help parents reconcile work with the care of these children, who have low autonomy, is reinforced. This work develops a method for the design of assistive technology and smart products to support children with ASD in following a routine and managing tasks autonomously. In this way, the article analyzes the design problem including the needs and preferences of children with ASD and their parents during confinement in terms of dependence and adaptability; develops a design method for interactive and smart products focused on children with ASD in confinement situations; and validates this method in a case study, in which a robot is developed that makes it easier for children with ASD to follow a routine

Review of the sustainable concept in energetic systems

Satisfacer la demanda de energía creciente se ha convertido en uno de los principales retos de la industria. Pero la configuración del mix energético con su elevado ritmo de consumo está agotando las reservas, generando graves impactos ambientales y agravando las tensiones sociales por el desequilibrio entre los países desarrollados y subdesarrollados. Es necesario establecer prioridades y encauzar las soluciones hacia las más eficientes para lo cual la industria debe evaluar sus sistemas energéticos de forma adecuada con un planteamiento estructurado que no de prioridad a ninguna fuente o recurso, sino que se lleve a cabo con una metodología universal, estándar e imparcial, que tenga en cuenta todos los impactos económicos, ambientales y sociales implicados y adaptativa a la continua evolución de los procesos energéticos y su tecnología. Con estos objetivos se desarrolla el presente trabajo, a partir de la aplicación de las metodologías de diseño axiomático e ingeniería Taguchi que posibilitan la definición del marco conceptual metodológico y los parámetros característicos necesarios que establezcan de un modo objetivo, riguroso y sistemático el pliego de características universales que debe incluir un sistema energético que quiera ser catalogado como sostenible.Energy availability in the industry has changed to the current level where the main challenge in developed countries is satisfy the growing energy demand. High rate consumption and the world’s energy mix are depleting the reserves, generating serious environmental impacts and maximizing social tensions by the imbalance between developed and underdeveloped countries. It is necessary to set priorities and to manage the situation towards the most efficient solutions; industry must evaluate its energy systems appropriately with a structured analysis which don’t prioritize any power source or resource, but it is carried out with a universal, standard and impartial methodology, taking into account all economic, environmental and social impacts and being adaptive to energy processes and technology development. Axiomatic design and Taguchi engineering, guide and structure the primary objective of this research: to establish a conceptual and methodological framework which is developed with an objective, rigorous and systematic analysis and it allow companies to class and check the best sustainable energy system

Low cost multimedia sensor networks for obtaining lighting maps

In many applications, video streams, images, audio streams and scalar data are commonly used. In these fields, one of the most important magnitudes to be collected and controlled is the light intensity in different spots. So, it is extremely important to be able to deploy a network of light sensors which are usually integrated in a more general Wireless Multimedia Sensor Network (WMSN). Light control systems have increasing applications in many places like streets, roads, buildings, theaters, etc. In these situations having a dense grid of sensing spots significantly enhances measuring precision and control performance. When a great number of measuring spots are required, the cost of the sensor becomes a very important concern. In this paper the use of very low cost light sensors is proposed and it is shown how to overcome its limited performance by directionally correcting its results. A correction factor is derived for several lighting conditions. The proposed method is firstly applied to measure light in a single spot. Additionally a prototype of a sensor network is employed to draw the lighting map of a surface. Finally the sensor grid is employed to estimate the position and power of a set of light sources in a certain region of interest (street, building,…). These three applications have shown that using low cost sensors instead of luxmeters is a feasible approach to estimate illuminance levels in a room and to derive light sources maps. The obtained error measuring spots illuminance or estimating lamp emittances are quite acceptable in many practical applications.Telefonica Chair "Intelligence in Networks" of the University of Seville (Spain

El paradigma cradle to cradle en el sector químico y medio ambiental

En la actualidad la sostenibilidad se extiende sobre todos los sectores y ámbitos relacionados con la sociedad; por supuesto, la industria es uno de ellos. A la hora de plantear y gestionar proyectos sostenibles, es necesario actuar integrando determinados aspectos que conlleven a los resultados óptimos exigidos o que sencillamente, han sido definidos en el objetivo del proyecto. Son innumerables las estrategias, metodologías y técnicas con las que se lleva a la práctica el desarrollo sostenible. Cradle to Cradle es un nuevo paradigma que integra las tres dimensiones de la sostenibilidad, introduciendo los proyectos en un marco de trabajo consecuente con el medio ambiente, adaptado a la sociedad y viable técnica y económicamente

Weighting with Life Cycle Assessment and Cradle to Cradle: a methodology for global sustainability design

Sustainable product design uses methodologies focused on eco-effectiveness and eco-efficiency for the proposal of innovative technological solutions and for the control of environmental impacts during the product life cycle. One of the main drawbacks of such techniques is their qualitative nature, associated with a decision-making process that is sometimes arbitrary, or with unverifiable data; this means that several complementary tools are currently being used to reduce the error in the results obtained. This situation makes the unification of procedures necessary. In this context, this research develops a methodology for the sustainable design of industrial products that integrates life cycle assessment (in its environmental, economic and social application) and cradle-to-cradle techniques. For this purpose, a new assessment process is proposed, based on damage, developing LCA+C2C endpoint indicators. The methodology is subsequently verified in a case study of products for sustainable mobility (city trike electric). The results show that an integrated LCA+C2C assessment can help to propose more balanced sustainable strategies and would be a suitable method to measure tradeoffs between economic, social and environmental results, for practical purposes and future redesigns. The unified method provides a procedure to design a solution with a trade-off between eco-efficient and eco-effective criteria; it also simplifies the design phases, facilitates the interpretation of the results and provides a quantitative scope to the cradle-to-cradle framework

ASDESIGN: método centrado en el usuario para el diseño de tecnología asistencial que ayude a niños con trastorno del espectro autista a ser mas independientes en sus rutinas

El Covid19 ha planteado nuevos desafíos a nivel mundial, suponiendo cambios sociales y estructurales que podrían mantenerse e implantarse definitivamente. Esta nueva normalidad requerirá nuevas estrategias para la mejora de la conciliación familiar y laboral, lo cual supone un reto para familias con niños y niñas que sufren de Trastorno del Espectro Autista (TEA). Esto ha provocado estrés, ansiedad y confusión para estos niños y sus familias. Se acentúa la necesidad de contar con herramientas que faciliten a los padres la conciliación del trabajo con el cuidado de estos niños/ as, los cuales cuentan con una baja autonomía. Este trabajo desarrolla un método para el diseño de tecnología asistencial y productos inteligentes para dar soporte a niños con TEA en el seguimiento y gestión tareas de forma autónoma. Así, se analiza el problema de diseño, necesidades y preferencias de los niños con TEA y sus padres durante el confinamiento; desarrolla el marco de diseño para productos interactivos e inteligentes enfocados a niños con TEA en situaciones de confinamiento y valida este método en un caso de estudio, para el que se desarrolla un robot que facilita a los niños con TEA el seguimiento de una rutina

Engineering of mechanical manufacturing from the cradle to cradle

The sustainability of manufacturing processes lies in industrial planning and productive activity. Industrial plants are characterized by the management of resource (inputs and outputs), processing and conversion processes, which usually are organized in a linear system. Good planning will optimize the manufacturing and promoting the quality of the industrial system. Cradle to Cradle is a new paradigm for engineering and sustainable manufacturing that integrates projects (industrial parks, manufacturing plants, systems and products) in a framework consistent with the environment, adapted to the society and technology and economically viable. To carry it out, we implement this paradigm in the MGE2 (Genomic Model of Eco-innovation and Eco-design), as a methodology for designing and developing products and manufacturing systems with an approach from the cradle to cradle

Innovación y equidad para un desarrollo sostenible en la investigación

A lo largo de la historia, el deseo por el conocimiento de las mujeres ha superado toda clase de barreras, haciendo posible que en la actualidad alcancen papeles representativos en todos los sectores de ciencia, tecnología y sociedad. Los avances sobre igualdad de género desintegran los ideales culturales impuestos, donde mujeres más preparadas que valoradas, alcanzan con el doble de esfuerzo los mismos propósitos que los hombres. Pero lentamente, la inserción en los ámbitos sociales, educacionales y laborales de la mujer ha hecho posible que se inicie la destrucción de lo que denominamos “el techo de cristal”. En el ámbito de la investigación, sobretodo en la rama científico-tecnológica, esta inserción crece más lentamente (por ejemplo, las mujeres sólo constituyen el 31,7% del personal investigador de la enseñanza superior de la UE). La solución a este problema reside en un cambio de la educación base y de los roles culturales. Existen muchos paradigmas que aportarán la estrategia adecuada para conseguir las metas planteadas: uno de ellos es Cradle to Cradle, que formalizando la interrelación entre los pilares de la sostenibilidad (ecología, economía y equidad) consigue la participación imparcial y neutra necesaria. Sólo de esta forma, desarrollo, excelencia, progreso e innovación completarán la base para una investigación de calidad