Robot-assisted Training for Facilitating Prosocial Behaviors of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

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The purpose of this study was to explore the potential of personalized robot-assisted training for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. This research explored how to provide feedback to individual children with Autism Spectrum Disorders using a robot. In particular, we investigated how to maintain each child's engagement during the training. We explored potential key factors in predicting behaviors toward a robot using video observation and a physiological signal-based method. This research found that voluntary prosocial behaviors occurred after smiling at and being closer to the robot. Based on the findings, we could predict prosocial behavior by detecting smiling with a probabilistic model. Additionally, we investigated involuntary behaviors toward a robot. When a child turned away from the robot, verbal feedback from a parent was effective to make the child reinitiate the interaction. It suggests that the smiling of a child might indicate inner motivation to engage with a robot. In contrast, when a child is not self-motivated to interact with a robot, parental feedback can be helpful to maintain engagement.