development and evaluation of a social robot platform for therapy in
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Development and evaluation of a social robot platform for therapy in
autism
Daniele Mazzei, University of Pisa
EMBC11Boston 29th August - 3th Sept 2011
ASDs and Robotics• One of the main difficulties in subjects
with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) is their inability to understand and analyze the emotional state of their interlocutor.
• Recent research shows that ASDs perceive robots not as machines, but as their artificial partners
Our Hypothesis
A THERAPIST GUIDED INTERACTION BETWEEN A ROBOT ABLE TO
EXPRESS EMOTIONS AND ASDS CAN HELP THEM TO IMPROVE
SOCIAL SKILLS.
The FACE of Autism, Mazzei et. All, ROMAN2010, Viareggio Italy, Sept. 2010
What we need?
The FACE Android
The FACE ‘mood’• Emotion Cartesian Space (ECS) based on the
Posner theory called ”The circumplex model of affect”
FACET platform
Face Control Unit(Bodymap and brain)
Face tracking and facial
expression recognition
Gaze tracking
hat
Sensorized
T-Shirt
Inertial platform
Room motorized cameras Environmental
microphone
Face configurator and control
interface
FACE android
FACET Software modules
Physiological signal acquisition• Based on e-textiles• HR, HRV, RR, skin conductance, skin
temperature, respiratory rate and accelerations
• All this signals can be correlated with subject emotional states
Valenza, G et all., Towards a smart glove: Arousal recognition based on textile Electrodermal Response, EMBC10
Made by Smartex
Srl, Ita
ly
HATCAM Eye Tracker• Wearable and specifically
designed to investigate early attention disorders in infants
• Hat or Band mounted system • fast and easy calibration
procedure • Mirror allows to use images of
both eyes (3D gaze point identification)
A.Armato, Implementation of new assistive technologies for people affected by Autistic Spectrum Disorders ASDs", Pisa May 2011. (Patent: TO2008A000862)
FACET platform
The FACET protocol
Subject – Robot interaction
Phase A:Familiarization with
the FACET room and the android
Phase B:Exposition and
inteprretation of FACE’s expressions
Phase C:Conversation with psycologist about
FACE
Phase D:Conversation with
FACE (if starts)
20 min0 min
Preliminary results• At the moment this therapy/paradigm has been tested
with 4 ASD subjects and 2 controls • No subjects showed discomfort or fear during the
therapy
increased cardiac sympathetic activity was observed in ASDs.
Conclusions• Well accepted by ASDs• Could have a wide range of
applications in the study of non-verbal communication and expression.
• Can become an innovative therapeutic approach aimed to gradually increase social cognitive skills of ASDs.
Future Works• On going experiments on control and ASDs• More tests of the FACET hardware/software
infrastructure• Using of the FACET platform to perform generic
studies about human-robot empathic link
Future WorksComplete and integrate the face adaptive control algorithm
trying to close the loop
