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Exploring the use of a mobile robot as an imitation agent with children with low-functioning autism

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Abstract

Unpredictability and complexity of social interactions are important challenges for a low functioning autistic child. The objective of this research is to study how a mobile robot can, by appearing more predictable, appealing and simple than a human being, facilitate reciprocal interaction such as imitative play. By conducting an exploratory study involving four children, we found that forms of shared conventions such as imitation of body movements and of familiar actions are higher with two children paired with a human mediator, compared to two children paired with a robot mediator. However, the two children paired with the robot mediator demonstrated increased shared attention (visual contact, physical proximity) and imitate facial expressions (smile) more than the children paired with the human mediator.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psycho-Education, Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, J1K 2R1, Canada

    Audrey Duquette & Henri Mercier

  2. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering, Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, J1K 2R1, Canada

    François Michaud

Authors
  1. Audrey Duquette
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  2. François Michaud
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  3. Henri Mercier
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to François Michaud.

Additional information

This work was supported in part by the Canada Research Chair (CRC), the Fonds québécois de recherche sur la nature et les technologies (FQRNT) and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI).

F. Michaud holds the Canada Research Chair in Mobile Robotics and Intelligent Autonomous Systems.

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Duquette, A., Michaud, F. & Mercier, H. Exploring the use of a mobile robot as an imitation agent with children with low-functioning autism. Auton Robot 24, 147–157 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10514-007-9056-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10514-007-9056-5

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