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Initial Response in HRI: A Pilot Study on Autism Spectrum Disorder Children Interacting with a Humanoid QTrobot

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Robot Intelligence Technology and Applications 7 (RiTA 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ((LNNS,volume 642))

Abstract

Research in the area of Human-robot Interaction (HRI) has gained momentum in recent years. The robot-based intervention system has spread to help the less fortunate specifically children who suffer from Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). These robot-based intervention studies utilized HRI platform in improving the impaired skills, such as, social skills, motor skills, and behavior. Recently, robot-based therapies have shown encouraging outcomes in improving the social skills of Autism Spectrum Disorder Children (ASDC). Herein, this paper elaborates a pilot study on initial responses of ASDC when being introduced to a humanoid QTrobot. QTrobot is chosen because of its ability to show facial expression. The ability to subtly show emotion is very important as it is going to be used for our differential reinforcement technique. The pilot experiment consists of 5 simple modules to prompt the responses of the participants. From the results, it clearly can be seen that humanoid QTrobot has a potential to be an HRI platform to initiate interaction among ASDC.

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Acknowledgement

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOE) for funding the research project through the Transdisciplinary Research Grant Scheme (TRGS) [Ref. No TRGS/1/2019/UIAM/02/4/3].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Islamic University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Muhammad Faisal El-Muhammady, Sarah Afiqah Mohd Zabidi, Hazlina Md. Yusof, Mohammad Ariff Rashidan, Shahrul Na’im Sidek & Aimi Shazwani Ghazali

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  1. Muhammad Faisal El-Muhammady
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  2. Sarah Afiqah Mohd Zabidi
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  3. Hazlina Md. Yusof
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  4. Mohammad Ariff Rashidan
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  5. Shahrul Na’im Sidek
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Muhammad Faisal El-Muhammady .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Information and Communication Technology, Griffith University, Southport, Australia

    Jun Jo

  2. Department of Aerospace Engineering, KAIST, Daejeon, Korea (Republic of)

    Han-Lim Choi

  3. School of Information and Communication Technology, Griffith University, Southport, Australia

    Marde Helbig

  4. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, Korea (Republic of)

    Hyondong Oh

  5. Department of Mechanical Engineering, KAIST, Daejeon, Korea (Republic of)

    Jemin Hwangbo

  6. Department of Mechanical Engineering, KAIST, Daejeon, Korea (Republic of)

    Chang-Hun Lee

  7. School of Information and Communication Technology, Griffith University, Southport, Australia

    Bela Stantic

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El-Muhammady, M.F., Zabidi, S.A.M., Yusof, H.M., Rashidan, M.A., Sidek, S.N., Ghazali, A.S. (2023). Initial Response in HRI: A Pilot Study on Autism Spectrum Disorder Children Interacting with a Humanoid QTrobot. In: Jo, J., et al. Robot Intelligence Technology and Applications 7. RiTA 2022. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 642. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26889-2_36

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