Design, Development, and a Pilot Study of a Low-Cost Robot for Child–Robot Interaction in Autism Interventions
Socially assistive robots are widely deployed in interventions with children on the autism spectrum, exploiting the benefits of this technology in social behavior intervention plans, while reducing their autistic behavior. Furthermore, innovations in modern technologies such as machine learning enha...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2022-06-01
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| Series: | Multimodal Technologies and Interaction |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2414-4088/6/6/43 |
| _version_ | 1827658050906882048 |
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| author | Ilias A. Katsanis Vassilis C. Moulianitis Diamantis T. Panagiotarakos |
| author_facet | Ilias A. Katsanis Vassilis C. Moulianitis Diamantis T. Panagiotarakos |
| author_sort | Ilias A. Katsanis |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Socially assistive robots are widely deployed in interventions with children on the autism spectrum, exploiting the benefits of this technology in social behavior intervention plans, while reducing their autistic behavior. Furthermore, innovations in modern technologies such as machine learning enhance these robots with great capabilities. Since the results of this implementation are promising, their total cost makes them unaffordable for some organizations while the needs are growing progressively. In this paper, a low-cost robot for autism interventions is proposed, benefiting from the advantages of machine learning and low-cost hardware. The mechanical design of the robot and the development of machine learning models are presented. The robot was evaluated by a small group of educators for children with ASD. The results of various model implementations, together with the design evaluation of the robot, are encouraging and indicate that this technology would be advantageous for deployment in child–robot interaction scenarios. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T22:54:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ac2f44a16f0941a1ad3c67b0621c13b0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2414-4088 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T22:54:27Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Multimodal Technologies and Interaction |
| spelling | doaj.art-ac2f44a16f0941a1ad3c67b0621c13b02023-11-23T18:14:53ZengMDPI AGMultimodal Technologies and Interaction2414-40882022-06-01664310.3390/mti6060043Design, Development, and a Pilot Study of a Low-Cost Robot for Child–Robot Interaction in Autism InterventionsIlias A. Katsanis0Vassilis C. Moulianitis1Diamantis T. Panagiotarakos2Department of Product and Systems Design Engineering, University of the Aegean, 84100 Syros, GreeceDepartment of Product and Systems Design Engineering, University of the Aegean, 84100 Syros, GreeceDepartment of Product and Systems Design Engineering, University of the Aegean, 84100 Syros, GreeceSocially assistive robots are widely deployed in interventions with children on the autism spectrum, exploiting the benefits of this technology in social behavior intervention plans, while reducing their autistic behavior. Furthermore, innovations in modern technologies such as machine learning enhance these robots with great capabilities. Since the results of this implementation are promising, their total cost makes them unaffordable for some organizations while the needs are growing progressively. In this paper, a low-cost robot for autism interventions is proposed, benefiting from the advantages of machine learning and low-cost hardware. The mechanical design of the robot and the development of machine learning models are presented. The robot was evaluated by a small group of educators for children with ASD. The results of various model implementations, together with the design evaluation of the robot, are encouraging and indicate that this technology would be advantageous for deployment in child–robot interaction scenarios.https://www.mdpi.com/2414-4088/6/6/43social robotssocially assistive robotsautism spectrum disorderchild–robot interactionrobot-mediated interventionrobot design |
| spellingShingle | Ilias A. Katsanis Vassilis C. Moulianitis Diamantis T. Panagiotarakos Design, Development, and a Pilot Study of a Low-Cost Robot for Child–Robot Interaction in Autism Interventions Multimodal Technologies and Interaction social robots socially assistive robots autism spectrum disorder child–robot interaction robot-mediated intervention robot design |
| title | Design, Development, and a Pilot Study of a Low-Cost Robot for Child–Robot Interaction in Autism Interventions |
| title_full | Design, Development, and a Pilot Study of a Low-Cost Robot for Child–Robot Interaction in Autism Interventions |
| title_fullStr | Design, Development, and a Pilot Study of a Low-Cost Robot for Child–Robot Interaction in Autism Interventions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Design, Development, and a Pilot Study of a Low-Cost Robot for Child–Robot Interaction in Autism Interventions |
| title_short | Design, Development, and a Pilot Study of a Low-Cost Robot for Child–Robot Interaction in Autism Interventions |
| title_sort | design development and a pilot study of a low cost robot for child robot interaction in autism interventions |
| topic | social robots socially assistive robots autism spectrum disorder child–robot interaction robot-mediated intervention robot design |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2414-4088/6/6/43 |
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