Software Architecture For A Humanoid Robot For Autism Spectrum Disorder Interventions In Children

摘要

The goal of this project was to create a robust, flexible and easily extensible software package for a robot intended to interact with autistic children, PABI. The robot was designed with the intention of facilitating diagnosis and therapy between clients with autism and a therapist. The robot functions either in an autonomous mode or as a remote avatar for a therapist. The robot's control system uses ROS node structures which allows for easy reconfiguration between therapeutic and diagnostic applications. These processes run across multiple computers as proof of concept for the distributed system architecture for remote operation of the robot. A demonstration application for applied behavioral analysis (ABA) therapy was created using electronic flash cards that the robot interacts with.