Abstract
In recent years, social robots have become part of a variety of human activities, especially in applications involving children, e.g., entertainment, education, companionship. The interest of this work lies in the interaction of social robots with children in the field of special education. This paper seeks to present a systematic review of the use of robots in special education, with the ultimate goal of highlighting the degree of integration of robots in this field worldwide. This work aims to explore the technologies of robots that are applied according to the impairment type of children. The study showed a large number of attempts to apply social robots to the special education of children with various impairments, especially in recent years, as well as a wide variety of social robots from the market involved in such activities. The main conclusion of this work is the finding that the specific field of application of social robots is at the first development step; however, it is expected to be of great concern to the research community in the coming years.
Highlights
There is no doubt that in recent years we have witnessed the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the so-called Industry 4.0 [1] in Europe and Society 5.0 [2] in Japan
The study focused on four distinct directions: (1) the investigation of the degree of integration of social robots in the training of special education individuals, (2) the assessment of the scope of application of social robots in different impairments, (3) the search for different types of social robots and their appropriateness by category of impairments and (4) the emergence of challenges that need to be addressed in order for social robots to make a significant contribution to the social integration of people with impairments
The present study quantified the satisfactory degree of integration of social robots in special education as well as the wide range of applications of social robots in a variety of impairments
Summary
There is no doubt that in recent years we have witnessed the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the so-called Industry 4.0 [1] in Europe and Society 5.0 [2] in Japan. The role of robotic systems appears to be enhanced in the field of executing specific actions based on the derived decisions. In this context, there is a growing trend in the application of robots outside of industrial workplaces, in people’s daily lives, through the development of the so-called cyber-physical systems. As a direct consequence of this high integration of robots into society, the term social robots has been adopted [3] to include the new generation of robotic systems that interact with humans in daily activities such as entertainment [4,5,6], healthcare [7,8], and education. An outstanding work about the social acceptance of robots in different application fields is presented systematically in [9]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
