1. Robots helping children with motor disabilities to reach their learning potential through play: the IROMEC Project experience 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 Serenella Besio, Francesca Caprino, Elena Laudanna University of Valle D’Aosta, Italy

2. Two projects 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 IROMEC IROMEC (Interactive RObotic social MEdiators as Companions) is a three year project (2006-2009) co-funded by the European Community within the 6 th Framework Programme. (RIF. FP6-2005-IST-5 Specific targeted research project-IROMEC) ADAPTED ROBOTS PROJECT is an ongoing project of the University of Valle D’Aosta

3. The IROMEC research consortium 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 Profactor GmbH, Wien (Austria) Università of Valle d’Aosta (Italy) University of Siena (Italy) University of Hertfordshire (Great Britain) AIT Austrian Instiute of Technology, Wien (Austria) Robosoft, Bidart (France) Vilans, Maastricht (The Netherlands) AIJU Instituto Tecnológico del Juguete, Alicante (Spain) Risoluta SLL, Cadiz (Spain)

4. The Adapted Robot Project 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 It is an ongoing project carried out by the Research group on technologies for play of children with disabilities established at the University of Valle D’Aosta The research group – directed by prof. Serenella Besio – is a multidisciplinary team including an engineer, a psychologist, a rehabilitation therapist and two Ph.D students It is located at the Faculty of Education of the University of Valle d’Aosta

5. Aim of the two experimental studies 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 To promote play in children with severe motor impairments by overcoming environmental barriers thus enhancing children’s learning potential and their social inclusion

6. Why play? 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 Play is the primary occupation in childhood Play is a major driving force of child’s growth (Vygotskij, Piaget) Play is related to all the main developmental areas (cognitive, social, emotional, motor)

7. Play, education, rehabilitation - 1 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 Knowledge in the history of pedagogy (Pestalozzi, 1806, Fröbel, 1826; Claparède, 1905) underlines the importance of play for the education of the child considered as a whole, of body and mind In the educational field play has been always applied both as a mean for learning and as an end in itself

8. Play, education, rehabilitation - 2 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 Play-based interventions are largely applied in the clinical context as a medium to achieve a wide range of treatment objectives (e.g. improvement of fine and global motor skills, enhancement of language functions) with children with disabilities, especially in the early years (Schaefer,1994)

9. Play, education, rehabilitation – 3 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 The observation of play behavior is a well- known methodology largely applied both in the therapeutic and in the educational contexts as an effective and ecologically sound approach to assess the child in a wide range of areas

10. The experience of play deprivation - 1 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 Children with some kind of disabilities may be prevented from fully developing their play skills, due both to individual and to environmental factors The play deprivation negatively affects the child’s development and can result also in secondary disabilities

11. Why ICF-CY as a framework for play and disability It offers a bio-psychosocial framework It adopts a language that is common to multiple disciplines It directly addresses issues related to child development such as play stages and functions It examines many aspects related to technology as an important mean for individuals’ activity and participation

12. The importance of Play 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 NEUROMUSCULOSKELETAL VOICE AND SPEECH PSYCHOMOTOR (…) SOCIAL PLAY OBJECT PLAY PRODUCTS AND TECHNOLOGIES FOR PLAY INCLUSION IN PLAY Play of children with motor disabilities according to the ICF model

13. Individual Factors and Play BODY FUNCTIONS 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 Individual factors negatively affecting play in children with motor impairments: Impairments in neuromusculoskeletal functions Impairments in voice and speech functions Impairments in psychomotor functions (….)

14. Individual factors and Play ACTIVITY AND PARTICIPATION 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 Individual factors negatively affecting play in children with motor impairments Limitations in mobility Limitations in communication Limitations in basic learning (….)

15. Environmental factors and play -1 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 They can be barriers or facilitators! Products and Technology for play Products and Technology for communication Products and technology for mobility Products and technology for education (…)

16. Environmental factors and play - 2 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 They can be barriers or facilitators! Support and relationships Attitudes Services and policies (…)

17. The Aosta team proposal – 1 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 Provide the right technologies for play to children with motor impairment thus enabling them to reach their learning and social potential Robotics, thanks to its high degree of interactivity may help children with motor Impairment to play independently, by interaction with the physical environment

18. The Aosta team proposal – 2 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 Two different approaches can be chosen: Design of novel robotic technologies for play (IROMEC project) Adaptation of existing robotic technologies for play (Adapted Robots Project)

19. Technologies applied 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 IROMEC ROBOT: a novel robotic toy specifically designed to meet the special play needs of children with severe disabilities Adapted robots: off the shelf toy adapted through accessible user interfaces

20. The IROMEC robot - 1 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 The IROMEC robot consists of: a mobile platform a configurable interaction module which covers the platform and can be easily plugged and unplugged a set of control buttons, allowing user with physical impairments to tele operate the robot by direct selection or through other input devices (external switches)

21. The IROMEC robot - 2 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009

22. Adapted Robots 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 Three different toy robots having a playful and enjoyable toy appearance and promoting in children active engagement and curiosity They are: available on the market playable with the pre-selected scenarios robust and safe remote controlled via IR

23. Adapted robots: Mr Personality 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 It is a wheeled mobile robot It can display on its colour LCD display different personalities Facial expressions are combined with arms’,head’s and trunk’s movements Mr Personality can move around avoiding obstacles Robot features also include sound, music and pre-recorded messages

24. Adapted robots: Mr Personality 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 In order to make accessible the system, the toy’s remote control has been adapted in order to be controlled via an AT device Further adaptations (to be done) Modification to visual feedback (faces) Modification to auditive feedbaks (pre-recorded messages)

25. Adapted robots: i-SOBOT – 1 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 It is a small humanoid toy robot, with a strong focus on expressiveness It can perform a wide range of movements The remote control allows users to create scripts, combining together several movements and then activating the script by pressing a single button It is also equipped with a gyroscopic sensor and a voice recognition system

26. Adapted robots: I-Sobot – 2 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 It has been re-programmed in order to make its functionalities accessible by single switch users Thanks to this adaptation an imitation game has been proposed to a group of motor impaired children playing with their peers

27. Adapted robots: Wall-E – 1 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 It is an appealing movie character with pre stored vocal messages and sounds By mean of an IR remote control it is possible to create more than 1000 different combinations of movement sequences It has 4 sensor for movement detection and 4 sensors for sound recognition

28. Adapted robots: Wall-E – 2 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 Thanks to its obstacle avoidance functions the Wall-E robot has been tested in a “Turn Taking” play scenario The movement sequences have been programmed and the sequences codes have been learned by an universal remote control

29. Adapted robots: work done 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 Adaptation of toy robots Playability and Usability tests Play Scenarios selection

30. Adapted Robots: future work 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 Development of new play scenarios Adaptation of other toy robots Assessment of educative and therapeutic outcomes of robot assisted play interventions

31. IROMEC: work done – 1 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 Analysis of Critical Factors involved in using interactive robots for education and therapy of children with disabilities Development of play scenarios Design of a prototype robo t

32. IROMEC: work done – 2 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 Preliminary tests to evaluate, accessibility, safety and playability of the IROMEC robot Development of a methodological framework to set up educational and therapy sessions with the IROMEC robot Experimental trials for the assessment of educational and therapeutic outcomes of robot assisted play sessions

33. IROMEC: future work 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009 Assessment of the educative and therapeutic outcomes of the play sessions with the IROMEC prototype Development of guidelines, mainly addressed to teachers and therapists, to set up robot assisted play sessions with children with disabilities Validation of a specific software (MACRO-Play) developed to match the play needs of children with disabilities with play scenarios and the available robotic technologies

34. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION! 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009