Using the humanoid robot KASPAR to autonomously play triadic games and facilitate collaborative play among children with autism

Auteur(s)

  • Joshua Wainer
  • Ben Robins
  • Farshid Amirabdollahian
  • Kerstin Dautenhahn

Référence

Wainer, J., Robins, B., Amirabdollahian, F., & Dautenhahn, K. (2014). Using the humanoid robot KASPAR to autonomously play triadic games and facilitate collaborative play among children with autism. IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development, 6(3), 183-199.

Domaines de recherche appliquée

Thématiques

Incapacités

Zones géographiques

Résumé de l'auteur

This paper presents a novel design, implementation, and first evaluation of a triadic, collaborative game involving the humanoid robot, kinesics and synchronization in personal assistant robotics (KASPAR), playing games with pairs of children with autism. Children with autism have impaired social communication and social interaction skills which make it difficult for them to participate in many different forms of social and collaborative play. Our proof-of-concept 10-week, long term study demonstrates how a humanoid robot can be used to foster and support collaborative play among children with autism. In this work, KASPAR operates fully autonomously, and uses information on the state of the game and behavior of the children to engage, motivate, encourage, and advise pairs of children playing an imitation game. Results are presented from a first evaluation study which examined whether having pairs of children with autism play an imitative, collaborative game with a humanoid robot affected the way these children would play the same game without the robot. Our initial evaluation involved six children with autism who each participated in 23 controlled play sessions both with and without the robot, using a specially designed imitation-based collaborative game. In total 78 play sessions were run. Detailed observational analyses of the children's behaviors indicated that different pairs of children with autism showed improved social behaviors in playing with each other after they played as pairs with the robot KASPAR compared to before they did so. These results are encouraging and provide a proof-of-concept of using an autonomously operating robot to encourage collaborative skills among children with autism.

Commentaire du Centre Ressources

This is an exciting study that shows some improvements in play stemming from exposure to social robots. Specifically, children who played an imitative game with KASPAR, a humanoid robot, showed more reciprocal eye gaze towards one another during and after the intervention, and they showed an improved positive affect. This suggests that KASPAR encourages shared attention between autistic children and is found to be socially rewarding. As these are two critical areas of delay for autistic children, these results are quite promising. It is also important to note that retention for this study was high. As this was an intervention involving over seventy sessions, a high retention rate in and of itself shows that the program is engaging and promotes play activity. Unfortunately, current access to a robot like KASPAR will be limited. However, such technology is developing at a rapid pace. It will be of interest in the future to see the application of robots to enhancing experiences for people with disabilities, and the role of robots in special education and intervention. For now, professionals may want to explore gaming interventions that make use of technology such as computer and video games that have a virtual character that guides multiple players to work with one another in a game.

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