A humanoid robot for autism rehabilitation: Does IQ influence response in child-robot interaction?

Recent advances show that robots have unlimited potential to help the disabled community by providing physical support, social engagement and even co-therapy in collaboration with another human. For children with autism, a robot in human shape might be able to help them to learn better and encourage social- communication skills. To prove this, the key initial step is to explore the initial response of children with autism when they interact with a humanoid robot in an experimental setting. We hypothesize that a robot's presence coupled with specific interplay shall attract the children's attention to engage in robot-based interaction. The initial responses will be utilized to seek association between responses to the robot with the children's intelligence level. Twelve autistic children with IQs between 44 and 107 were exposed to different interactions. Behavior evaluation showed that in the presence of the robot, lower autistic traits were recorded in the subscale of stereotyped behavior and communication. Also, children with IQs higher than 80 were more receptive to robot-based single exposure.