Robot Systems for Play in Education and Therapy of Disabled Children

From a developmental and educational perspective, play is a “natural” way in which children learn in an enjoyable manner. It can be relaxing, exciting - children can play a role and it is an important possibility to get in touch with other children. On the other hand, disabled children have limited possibilities for interaction with social and material environment. This paper is focusing on two particular projects coordinated by the author. The PlayROB system is a robot which supports severe handicapped children for playing with LEGOTM bricks. For a long-term field trial six PlayROB systems have been realized and installed at selected Austrian education institutions. The user tests revealed that the goal to make autonomous play for children with physical handicaps possible has been fully achieved. The second presented project - the EC-funded project IROMEC - is dealing with an interactive robot system for use in education and therapy. A novel framework for this application area is being developed and evaluated by means of a dedicated robot setup. The main research focus of IROMEC is on the user oriented definition of appropriate play scenarios, development of evaluation methods, and finally on the definition of robot behaviors and interaction modes. Robustness, dependability as well as “plug&play” operation of the robot system are specifically addressed.