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Physical Human-Robot Interaction Influence in ASD Therapy Through an Affordable Soft Social Robot

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Abstract

In the latest years, there has been a rise in social robotics’ interest as a support tool in various scopes. For instance, social robots have been used in Autism treatments, improving social skills, social interaction, and children’s daily activities performance. Although several studies elucidate the benefits of social robots in the ASD community, few focus on evaluating and promoting physical interaction. Thus, this study presents the development and assessment of a social robotic platform based on soft actuation to promote physical interaction. A total of 35 children diagnosed with autism were involved in this study. The primary outcomes show that physical interaction does not significantly influence the patient’s performance in the activity. However, the clinicians remark that encouragement and motivation increase when the children were allowed to interact with the robot physically. Also, 52.9% of the control group children elucidate the intention of physically interact with the robot, suggesting this behavior is an essential way of communication.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the Howard Gardner Clinic’s support, the Colombian School of Engineering Julio Garavito, and the children and families who participated in the study, without whom this work would not have been possible.

Funding

This work was supported in part by the Royal Academy of Engineering, CASTOR Project: CompliAnt SofT Robotics (Grant IAPP1-100126) and Minciencias Colombia (Grant 845-2020) for supported this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IDLab-imec, Ghent University, 9052, Ghent, Belgium

    Maria Jose Pinto-Bernal

  2. School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK

    Nathalia Cespedes

  3. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Colombian School of Engineering Julio Garavito, Bogota, Colombia

    Paola Castro & Marcela Munera

  4. Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK

    Carlos A. Cifuentes

  5. School of Engineering, Science and Technology, Universidad del Rosario, Bogota, Colombia

    Carlos A. Cifuentes

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  1. Maria Jose Pinto-Bernal
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  2. Nathalia Cespedes
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  3. Paola Castro
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  4. Marcela Munera
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  5. Carlos A. Cifuentes
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Contributions

All authors (Maria Jose Pinto-Bernal, Nathalia Cespedes, Paola Castro, Marcela Munera and Carlos A. Cifuentes) contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Maria Jose Pinto-Bernal and Nathalia Cespedes, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Carlos A. Cifuentes.

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The caregivers of the children formally recruited in this study provided their signed informed consent allowing participation in the study.

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The Colombian School of Engineering Julio Garavito ethics committee approved the protocol.

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The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

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The caregivers of the children formally recruited in this study provided their signed informed consent allowing participation in the study.

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Pinto-Bernal, M.J., Cespedes, N., Castro, P. et al. Physical Human-Robot Interaction Influence in ASD Therapy Through an Affordable Soft Social Robot. J Intell Robot Syst 105, 67 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-022-01617-0

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