Autism and mobile robotics: a first experience

G. Pradel¹, Ph. Hoppenot¹, C. Goffart¹, J.P. Malen², E. Colle¹

¹Laboratoire Systèmes Complexes -LSC,^, 40 Rue du Pelvoux, 91020 Evry cedex, France

² Hôpital de jour, 40 avenuePetit-Leroy, 94000 Chevilly-Larue, France

Astract. Autistic Spectrum Disorders lead to the necessity of a fully adaptive management. Game is an educational way of intervention. First studies with an automous robot tend to point out that these children’s social behaviour would be helped when interacting with a robot toy. With a remotely operated robot prototype, we led a comparative study between a traditional toy play and the remote operated robot play between the two playing conditions. The robot seemed to capture the children’s interest. This study has also allowed us to acquire information on the solitary and social play of these children with the robot.

Keywords. Autistic Spectrum Disorders, solitary play, social play, remote operated mobile robot, autonomous behaviour