Robots for Pre-orientation and Interaction of Toddlers and Preschoolers who are Blind

Abstract

It has been suggested that the first humans to benefit from the emergence of autonomous mobile robots in our everyday environment will be people with disabilities and the elderly [Aylett, 2002]. We report on experiments using legged robots to establish multimodal interaction with children who are blind.1 Our results indicate that with very short sessions toddlers who are blind are able to operate a suitably modified SONY Aibo. Moreover, these blind toddlers progressed from the stages of stimulus to interaction and from interaction into engagement. This engagement constituted a pedagogically interesting stage of learning by playing. The exposure to the robot has also sparked their interest for exploring and using other machines and equipment. This indicates that mobile robots can assist in their development and learning for Pre-orientation and interaction.