Rapid prototyping framework for robot-assisted training of autistic children

Research in uptake and actual use of robots in socially assistive tasks is rapidly growing. However, practical applications lack behind due to the enormous effort to create meaningful behaviours. This paper describes a rapid prototyping framework for robot-assisted training of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The main goal of this research is to provide a framework which translates the knowledge from the evidenced Pivotal Response Training to end-user tools, that allow therapists to program/adapt a training program mediated by a robot in order to use it in therapies. The overall structure of the intervention is based on Activity Theory which makes it easy to properly arrange robot actions and decisions. We appended a general end-user robot programming tool with PRT therapy-specific training structures which can be adapted with ease to create almost limitless learning opportunities utilizing a range of training scenarios or games. Pilot tests with children with ASD were performed to assess whether the robot assisted intervention created by this framework is ready for practical use. These showed that only minor adaptations were needed to increase the fluency of the robot-child interaction.