Robot - assisted therapy for autistic children

Abstract

Using robots as an assistive technology gave rise to Robot Assisted Therapy. It is one of the fastest-growing fields in the research area. Many target groups benefit from the rehabilitative interaction with robots, especially humanoid ones. One of the most important groups are the children suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Over the past fifteen years there has been a lot of progress in treating autistic children through robotic interaction for therapeutic purposes. This paper presents the work done in implementing a NAO humanoid robot in a research experiment with ASD children.