Social Distance in Interactions between Children with Autism and Robots

Abstract

The use of non-industrial robots, called service robots, is increasing in the welfare fields to meet the demand for robot therapy among individuals with autism. The more simple communication structures and repetitive behaviors of robots, compared to humans, make it easier for children with autism to interpret communication and respond appropriately. Interacting with a robot allows for social distance to be designed and maintained depending on a person’s social interaction needs. To simulate natural social interactions, robots need to perform social distance in some way. In the context of interacting with autistic children, understanding their social response levels is crucial for the robot to implement decisions regarding the distance kept during the interaction. In this study, an experiment was conducted to examine the accuracy of a detection program and explore the correlations between the social responsiveness of children and social distance, wherein 15 autistic children interacted with a robot on a one-to-one basis for about 20 min. The results revealed that both programs implemented in the robot-assisted autism therapy were effective in detecting social distance in a natural HRI situation.

Keywords

• robot-assisted therapy
• human robot interaction
• autism
• social distance
• social robot