Viability of Robots in Improving Autistic Student’s Engagement and Happiness When Learning

Abstract

The adoption of robotics in other industries is increasing exponentially at a rapid pace due to increased interest in the field. Advancements in robotic technology allow them to be more capable in teaching a variety of topics while costing much less than even just a decade ago. This means that robots are more ready than ever before to be deployed globally in the educational space. The aim of paper is to check the viability of robots in improving autistic students’ engagement and happiness, rather than just their performance. 6 autistic students aged 7 – 12 took part in this experiment (4 male and 2 female). Several different structured scenarios and tasks were used to evaluate the student’s happiness and engagement on a scale of five. It was found that the children showed an improvement of 144% across the board, when comparing the happiness score and an increase of 61.4% for the students’ engagement score. It was also found that the children were showing much more emotion and were much more responsive during the tasks.