Robotic agents used to help teach social skills to children with Autism: The third generation

This paper reports on the cross-collaborative efforts between computer science, special education and mechanical engineering on some of the robotic platforms used in therapeutic environments, and our investigation of using robots as educationally useful interventions to improve social interactions for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Development of a third generation robotic agent is described which uses an approach to treatment as an educational intervention based on Socially Assistive Robotics (SAR), direct instruction pedagogy, the use of social scripts, and our investigative process of using Lego® NXT platforms.