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A Haptic Empathetic Robot Animal for Children with Autism

Published: 08 March 2021 Publication History

Abstract

Children with autism and their families could greatly benefit from increased support resources. While robots are already being introduced into autism therapy and care, we propose that these robots could better understand the child's needs and provide enriched interaction if they utilize touch. We present our plans, both completed and ongoing, for a touch-perceiving robot companion for children with autism. We established and validated touch-perception requirements for an ideal robot companion through interviews with 11 autism specialists. Currently, we are evaluating custom fabric-based tactile sensors that enable the robot to detect and identify various touch communication gestures. Finally, our robot companion will react to the child's touches through an emotion response system that will be customizable by a therapist or caretaker.

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Cited By

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  • (2024)Ommie: The Design and Development of a Social Robot for Anxiety ReductionACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction10.1145/370612214:2(1-34)Online publication date: 5-Dec-2024
  • (2024)Smartphone Haptics Can Uncover Differences in Touch Interactions Between ASD and NeurotypicalsProceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies10.1145/36997498:4(1-34)Online publication date: 21-Nov-2024
  • (2024)Wearable Technology for Signal Acquisition and Interactive Feedback in Autism Spectrum Disorder Intervention: A ReviewIEEE Sensors Journal10.1109/JSEN.2024.337476224:9(13797-13815)Online publication date: 1-May-2024
  • Show More Cited By

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences
HRI '21 Companion: Companion of the 2021 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
March 2021
756 pages
ISBN:9781450382908
DOI:10.1145/3434074
  • General Chairs:
  • Cindy Bethel,
  • Ana Paiva,
  • Program Chairs:
  • Elizabeth Broadbent,
  • David Feil-Seifer,
  • Daniel Szafir
Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 08 March 2021

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Author Tags

  1. robot-assisted therapy
  2. socially assistive robotics
  3. tactile sensors

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Overall Acceptance Rate 192 of 519 submissions, 37%

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Cited By

View all
  • (2024)Ommie: The Design and Development of a Social Robot for Anxiety ReductionACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction10.1145/370612214:2(1-34)Online publication date: 5-Dec-2024
  • (2024)Smartphone Haptics Can Uncover Differences in Touch Interactions Between ASD and NeurotypicalsProceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies10.1145/36997498:4(1-34)Online publication date: 21-Nov-2024
  • (2024)Wearable Technology for Signal Acquisition and Interactive Feedback in Autism Spectrum Disorder Intervention: A ReviewIEEE Sensors Journal10.1109/JSEN.2024.337476224:9(13797-13815)Online publication date: 1-May-2024
  • (2024)Social touch to build trustComputers in Human Behavior10.1016/j.chb.2023.108121153:COnline publication date: 12-Apr-2024
  • (2024)A Multisensorial Socially Assistive Robot for Therapies with Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Down Syndrome Using Serious GamesIX Latin American Congress on Biomedical Engineering and XXVIII Brazilian Congress on Biomedical Engineering10.1007/978-3-031-49407-9_55(550-561)Online publication date: 4-Jan-2024
  • (2023)Starrypia: An AR Gamified Music Adjuvant Treatment Application for Children with Autism Based on Combined TherapyProceedings of the 36th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/3586183.3606755(1-16)Online publication date: 29-Oct-2023
  • (2023)First-Hand Impressions: Charting and Predicting User Impressions of Robot HandsACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction10.1145/358059212:3(1-25)Online publication date: 18-Jan-2023
  • (2023)Wear Your Heart on Your Sleeve: Users Prefer Robots with Emotional Reactions to Touch and Ambient Moods2023 32nd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN)10.1109/RO-MAN57019.2023.10309358(1914-1921)Online publication date: 28-Aug-2023
  • (2021)Robot-Assisted Autism Therapy (RAAT). Criteria and Types of Experiments Using Anthropomorphic and Zoomorphic Robots. Review of the ResearchSensors10.3390/s2111372021:11(3720)Online publication date: 27-May-2021

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