1. Design of Robotic Heads for Use in Assistive Robotics Dan Ricks

2. Outline ► What Do Robots Look Like? ► Current Robots Used in Autism Research ► What Should Robots Look Like? ► Input

3. HRI Robot Classifications RealisticMascot Machine

4. The Uncanny Valley

6. Current Humanoid Autism Robots Kaspar Keepon FACE InfanoidRobota

7. How They Chose Their Robots… ► Infanoid (Koyoto and Nagoya Universities) – The robot was built to show emotion, but little effort was put into covering the mechanical parts. ► Keepon (National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Japan) – Tried to make it as simple as physically possible to avoid distractions. ► FACE (University of Pisa, Italy) – Used to teach the intricacies of human emotion, and so a very lifelike head was built. ► Robota (University of Hertfordshire) - Used limbs, head, and clothes from a doll. ► Kaspar (University of Hertfordshire) - After doing the study with Robota, they tried to make a robot that balanced looking human as well as being simple and plain. They used a CPR dummy mask for face.

8. Does Appearance Matter? Case 1: Theatrical Robot Actor in Normal Clothes Actor in Robot Costume TouchGazeNear

9. Does Appearance Matter? Case 2: Robota Robota in Doll Clothes Robota in Plain Clothes Billy Don Andy

10. Current Therapies They Do ► Act as the object of joint attention. ► Perform imitation activities. ► Play turn-taking games. ► Practice eye contact. ► Used as a toy in unstructured playtime. ► Enact and teach appropriate behavior in social situations. ► Make a facial emotion and have the child label it or match it to a picture of a human making that same face. ► Tell the child a social situation and have the child pick an emotion for the robot.

11. How Can We Tell if They’re Interested? ► Ask Them ► Observationally Based ► Physiological Feedback

12. Observation Based ► Put the child in a room with the robot performing some routine. ► Videotape and measure:  Eye Gaze  Touch  Imitation  Proximity

13. Physiological Feedback ► Have the child wear a BioPac system. ► The child plays rigged games. ► A parent and a therapist identify whether a child likes the game, is bored, or anxious. ► Researchers associate these emotions with their physiological levels. ► Now the computer can automatically label their emotional states. The computer and therapist agree 81% of the time. This study was performed by the Marino Autism Research Institute in conjunction with Vanderbilt University

14. Input ► What abilities should the face have?  Ekman Faces  Happy vs. Unhappy ► Which faces would be appropriate? ► Should we/how can we, test to see if they are appropriate?