Robot-based therapeutic protocol for training children with Autism

Robots are commonly used artificial agents with powerful capabilities in navigation, perception and execution in the physical world. One interesting question is how well robots can assist and engage individuals with social and behavioral deficits (such as autism) to acquire new skills? Preliminary studies in autism research demonstrate that in many cases individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) interact more actively and engagingly with robots than humans. As there are limited investigations for utilizing robots in social and behavioral treatments of individuals with ASD, we designed and evaluated a robot-based intervention protocol using a social robot (NAO) to deliver behavioral training mechanism for children with ASD. Results of our pilot study on seven verbal children with high functioning autism show behavioral response improvement, including pointing and facial expression recognition in the majority of the participants as a consequence of the behavioral intervention delivered directly through the robot. Results also show that individuals were able to engage in these learned skills during human-human follow-up sessions.