Robot-Enhanced Therapy

Author(s)

Hoang-Long Cao, Pablo Esteban, Madeleine Bartlett, Paul Baxter, Tony Belpaeme, Erik Billing, Haibin Cai, Mark Coeckelbergh, Cristina Costescu, Daniel David, Albert De Beir, Daniel Hernandez, James Kennedy, Honghai Liu, Silviu Matu, Alexandre Mazel, Amit Pandey, Kathleen Richardson, Emmanuel Senft, Serge Thill, Greet Van de Perre, Bram Vanderborght, David Vernon, Kutoma Wakunuma, Hui Yu, Xiaolong Zhou, Tom Ziemke

Abstract

Robot-assisted therapy (RAT) offers potential advantages for improving the social skills of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). This article provides an overview of the developed technology and clinical results of the EC-FP7-funded Development of Robot-Enhanced therapy for children with AutisM spectrum disorders (DREAM) project, which aims to develop the next level of RAT in both clinical and technological perspectives, commonly referred to as robot-enhanced therapy (RET). Within this project, a supervised autonomous robotic system is collaboratively developed by an interdisciplinary consortium including psychotherapists, cognitive scientists, roboticists, computer scientists, and ethicists, which allows robot control to exceed classical remote control methods, e.g., Wizard of Oz (WoZ), while ensuring safe and ethical robot behavior. Rigorous clinical studies are conducted to validate the efficacy of RET. Current results indicate that RET can obtain an equivalent performance compared to that of human standard therapy for children with ASDs. We also discuss the next steps of developing RET robotic systems.

Organisation(s)

External organisation(s)

Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Plymouth University , University of Lincoln, Ghent University , University of Skövde, Loughborough University, De Montfort University, Babeș-Bolyai University, University of Portsmouth, Softbank Robotics Europe, Carnegie Mellon University Africa, Zhejiang University (ZJU), Linköping University

Journal

IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazin

Volume

26

Pages

49-58

No. of pages

10

ISSN

1070-9932

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1109/MRA.2019.2904121

Publication date

2019

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

603122 Philosophy of technology

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Control and Systems Engineering, Computer Science Applications

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/9c18f047-36be-46f6-827b-00f4df52dbb9