Abstract
This article reports our findings from a robot-assisted therapeutic study conducted over 49 days to investigate the sociopsychological and physiological effects in children with autism spectrum disorder using a parrot-inspired robot, KiliRo, that we developed to help in therapeutic settings. We investigated the frequency of participants’ interactions among each other and assessed any changes in interaction using social network analysis. Interactions were assessed through manual observation before and after exposure to the robot. Urinary and salivary tests were performed to obtain protein and α-amylase levels, respectively, to report the physiological changes in participating children with autism spectrum disorder before and after interacting with the robot. This is a pioneering human–robot interaction study to investigate changes in stress levels using salivary samples. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, and arterial oxygen saturation level in blood were also monitored to investigate the physiological changes in participating children before, during, and after interacting with our parrot-inspired robot, KiliRo. The results show that the robot can help increase social interaction among children with autism spectrum disorder and assist in learning tasks. Furthermore, the clinical biochemistry test report using urinary and salivary samples indicates that the stress levels of children with autism reduced notably after interacting with the robot. Nevertheless, blood pressure, heart rate, and oxygen levels in blood did not show positive change in all participants.
Highlights
Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States estimated that in 2014 about 1% of the world population has some form of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).[1]
We have developed a parrot-inspired robot, KiliRo, and validated the merits of our robot in improving learning and social interaction abilities, reducing stress levels, and improving physiological conditions with a group of 24 children identified with autism over a period of 49 days
This study demonstrated that the interaction with our KiliRo robot can help improve learning and social interaction abilities of children with autism
Summary
Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States estimated that in 2014 about 1% of the world population has some form of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).[1] That is, approximately, 74 million people around the world may potentially be diagnosable with ASD. The lifetime cost of an individual with ASD in the United States averages from 1.4 million to 2.4 million USD.[2] A few important characteristics of ASD include behavioral and psychological challenges such as lack of social interaction and communication as well as persistence with sensory. Researchers in the recent decades have explored numerous ways to help improve the lifestyle of children with autism. Like various other therapy methods, robotassisted therapy is explored in various settings to help children with autism in learning, social interaction, physiological, and psychological needs.[3,4,5,6,7,8]
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