Abstract

Emerging evidence suggests that some children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) tend to increase their levels of social behavior when interacting with a robot. There are many plausible explanations for the effects that a robot has on children with ASD. Since children with ASD have difficulty with the self-initiation of social behavior, and that initiation of behavior is important for social skill development, a robot that helps with initiation of social behavior could be potentially valuable in both research and intervention.
The aim of this work is to determine if such a link exists, and if so, what elements of a robot's form and function (contingency, anthropomorphism, embodiment, etc.) correlate with changes in social behavior. We also aim to detect and interpret the child's interactions, especially social behavior relevant to ASD (body position, head direction, gestures, vocal prosody, etc.). Finally, we are designing a robot system that can act appropriately in a social setting that could be used to augment established diagnostic and therapeutic regimens for children with ASD.

Date

2009

Authors

David Feil-Seifer, Matt Black, MJ Mataric, Shrikanth Narayanan

Journal

USC Interaction Lab Technical Report CRES-09-001