FRAMEWORK DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN-ROBOT INTERACTION FOR AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER
(ASD) CHILDREN
BY
NOR IZZATI ISHAK
A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Science (Mechatronics Engineering)
Kulliyyah of Engineering
International Islamic University Malaysia
SEPTEMBER 2019
ii
ABSTRACT
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurological and developmental disorder that affects one’s ability to understand social cues and to communicate. As it begins early in childhood and can last throughout a person’s life, it is important to have an early intervention and rehabilitation. Previous research has shown that robotic platforms helped and encouraged positive outcome in ASD children rehabilitation. Early interventions through human-robot interaction (HRI) have the potential when used to improve communication and social skills of the children. Currently, the existing robots used in rehabilitation tend to have specific features and appearance and are lacking in ability to extend their capability to do extra tasks in encouraging engagement of ASD children towards learning and interaction. In this research, a new framework has been developed featuring a robot and human interaction modules that includes robot selection, development of interaction modules, and HRI measurement. A commercial robot, Rero has been selected based on its reconfigurable capability, mobile, speech enabled, controllable, programmable, and attractive characteristics. In order to determine which robot configuration is more preferable by the ASD children, a humanoid robot and a pet-like mobile robot have been built and their preliminary responses have been observed. A few interaction modules have been developed and they are consist of imitating actions, following instructions, naming objects, as well as focusing and matching colours. Two sets of questionnaires which consist of task completion (Part 1) and engagement level (Part 2) have been analysed. Observations from the experiment shows that 75% of the children enjoyed the interaction modules and 70% were well engaged with the robots. The engagement was also measured using image-based proxemics behaviour measurement method to see the distance between the robot and the children. From the Sign test, it can be seen that the results from the combination of image-based proxemics behaviour measurement (average distance) and Questionnaire Part 2 is better than results from Questionnaire Part 2 only. Nine ASD children have been selected for this experiment based on certain criteria. From the results, two out of nine subjects have no preference of robots, five of them prefer the mobile robot and another two prefer the humanoid robot.
iii
ثحبلا ةصلاخ
ABSTRACT IN ARABIC
دّحوتلا فيط بارطضا برتعي (ASD)
لا تباارطضلاا نم تاراشلإا مهف في درفلا ةردق ىلع رثؤت تيلا ةيومنتلاو ةيبصع
،صخشلا ةايح لاوط مودت نأ نكيمو ةركبلما ةلوفطلا ةلحرم في بارطضلاا ةلاح أدبت .نيرخلآا عم لصاوتلاو ةيعامتجلاا باسلا ثابحلأا ترهظأ دقو .ليهأتلا ةداعإ ةيلمعب مايقلل ًاركبم يجلاعلا لخدتلا نوكي نأ مهلما نمو تاصنم نأ ةق
لافطلأا ليهتأ ةداعإ ةيلمع في ةيبايجإ ةجيتن ىلع لوصلحا في دعاست ةيللآا توبورلا .ASD
نأ ركذلبا ريدلجا نم
توبورلاو ناسنلإا ينب يلعافت ماظن للاخ نم ةركبلما ةيجلاعلا تلاخدتلا (HRI)
تاراهلما ينستح ىلع ةردق اهيدل
دنع لصاوتلا تاراهمو ةيعامتجلاا ا
لافطلأ . ، ليالحا تقولا في ّنإ
ا تتاوبورلا ةرّفوتلم
و لا ت تي ليهتأ ةداعإ في مدختس
لافطلأا اله ظمو تازيم ا
ددمح ره ة تج اهلع ةزجاع نع اتهردق عيسوت ل
عيجشت في ةيفاضإ ماهبم مايقل إ
رش ا ك لأا لافط ASD
في ةيلمع ّلعتلا افت تادحو مضي ديدج لمع راطإ ريوطت تم ،ثحبلا اذه في .لعافتلاو م لع
ينب توبورلاو ناسنلإا ليلآا
تادحولا هذه لمشتو ةيصاخ
،توبورلا رايتخا سايقو ،لعافتلا تادحو ريوطتو
HRI لا . توبور لا يراجت Rero ،
رايتخا تم ةلباقلا هتردق ىلع ًءانب ه
ىلع لاو ، لكشتلا ةداعإ ت
، ملاكلاو ، لاوج ةيناكمإ عم
لع ةرطيسلا كلذ ى
، دوجو عم
صئاصخ و ةباذج
ل ةلباق .ةمجبرل و لافطلأا لبق نم لايضفت رثكأ وه يذلا توبورلا نيوكت ديدتح لجأ نم ASD
تم ،
توبور ءانب يرشب
دقو ،ةفيللأا تنااويلحا هبشي لوممح توبورو ةظحلام تتم
.ةيلولأا مهدودر دقو
ليلق ددع ريوطت تم
نم نوكتت يهو لعافتلا تادحو نم هيلع يه تيلا لكشلا لثاتم تيلا تاءايحلإا
، ،تاميلعتلا عابتاو و
تانئاكلا ةيمست
اهتقباطمو ناوللأا ىلع زيكترلا نع ًلاضف ، .
)لولأا ءزلجا( ماهلما زانجإ نم نوكتت تيلا تناايبتسلاا نم ينتعوممج ليلتح تم
نأ ةبرجتلا تاظحلام للاخ نم رهظي .)نياثلا ءزلجا( لعافتلا ىوتسمو نأو لعافتلا جذامنب نوعتمتي لافطلأا نم ٪ 75
كولسلا سايق ةقيرط مادختسبا لعافتلا سايق اًضيأ تم .تتاوبورلا عم ديج لكشب ينطرخنم اوناك مهنم ٪ 70 proxemics جئاتنلا نأ ظحلاي ،عيقوتلا رابتخا للاخ نمو .لافطلأاو توبورلا ينب ةفاسلما ةفرعلم روصلا لىإ ةدنتسلما
كولسلا سايق عجم نع ةتجانلا proxemics
صلا لىإ ةدنتسلما رو
( ةفاسلما طسوتم )
نم لضفأ نياثلا ءزلجا نايبتساو
نم لافطأ ةعست رايتخا تم دقو .طقف نياثلا ءزلجا نايبتسا جئاتن ASD
جئاتن نمو .ةنيعم يرياعم ىلع ًءانب ةبرجتلا هذله
وبورلا نولضفي مهنم ةسخمو ،تتاوبورلا نم يلأ ليضفت يأ مهيدل سيل صاخشأ ةعست لصأ نم يننثا نأ ةبرجتلا ت
ناسنلإا هبشي يذلا توبورلا نولضفي نيرخآ يننثاو لوملمحا
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APPROVAL PAGE
I certify that I have supervised and read this study and that in my opinion, it conforms to acceptable standards of scholarly presentation and is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a dissertation for the degree of Master of Science (Mechatronics Engineering).
………..
Hazlina Md Yusof Supervisor
………..
Shahrul Naim Sidek Co-Supervisor
I certify that I have read this study and that in my opinion it conforms to acceptable standards of scholarly presentation and is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a dissertation for the degree of Master of Science (Mechatronics Engineering).
………..
Noor Hazrin Hany Hanif Internal Examiner
………..
Siti Fauziah Toha Internal Examiner
This dissertation was submitted to the Department of Mechatronics Engineering and is accepted as a fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Science (Mechatronics Engineering).
………..
Syamsul Bahrin Abdul Hamid Head, Department of
Mechatronics Engineering
This dissertation was submitted to the Kulliyyah of Engineering and is accepted as a fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Science (Mechatronics Engineering).
………..
Ahmad Faris Ismail
Dean, Kulliyyah of Engineering
v
DECLARATION
I hereby declare that this dissertation is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. I also declare that it has not been previously or concurrently submitted as a whole for any other degrees at IIUM or other institutions.
Nor Izzati Ishak
Signature ... Date ...
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INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA
DECLARATION OF COPYRIGHT AND AFFIRMATION OF FAIR USE OF UNPUBLISHED RESEARCH
FRAMEWORK DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN-ROBOT INTERACTION FOR AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER (ASD)
CHILDREN
I declare that the copyright holders of this dissertation are jointly owned by the student and IIUM.
Copyright © 2019 Nor Izzati Ishak and International Islamic University Malaysia. All rights reserved.
No part of this unpublished research may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright holder except as provided below
1. Any material contained in or derived from this unpublished research may be used by others in their writing with due acknowledgement.
2. IIUM or its library will have the right to make and transmit copies (print or electronic) for institutional and academic purposes.
3. The IIUM library will have the right to make, store in a retrieved system and supply copies of this unpublished research if requested by other universities and research libraries.
By signing this form, I acknowledged that I have read and understand the IIUM Intellectual Property Right and Commercialization policy.
Affirmed by Nor Izzati Ishak
……..……….. ………..
Signature Date
vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Alhamdulillah, praise be to Allah and may peace and blessings be upon Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and all of his companions. First and foremost, I would like to express my highest gratitude to Allah S.W.T. for His grace and mercy for I have been able to successfully complete this dissertation writing.
A special appreciation goes to my supervisor, Ass. Prof. Dr. Hazlina and my co- supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Shahrul Naim for their patient guidance and assistance throughout the completion of this project. I sincerely thank them for their invaluable support and encouragement during my years at Kulliyyah of Engineering IIUM. I genuinely appreciate the many hours they have spent working with me on this thesis as well as the research work. They also gave useful recommendations and ideas for my project. Without their contribution, it was hard to complete this assessment.
My gratitude also goes to the consultant psychiatrist, Dr Subash Kumar Pillai and occupational therapist from IDEAS Autism Centre (IAC), Mrs Nurzaharah Sajin for spending their time to consult and give feedbacks towards this project. I would like to thank Mrs Sharifah Salleh and Mrs Zaleha Jaalan for providing an area to setup this experiment at their autism centres, which are IAC and National Autism Society of Malaysia (NASOM) Gombak respectively. I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to all those special education teachers from both centres for helping me in completing this project, directly or indirectly.
I will forever grateful to my fellow research friends who have been so gracious with their knowledge and idea; Nazreen Rusli, Huda Azam, Asmarani Ahmad Puzi, Rabiatuladawiah Abu Hanifah, and all my lab mate in Biomechatronics lab. Thank you all for providing inspiration and helpful suggestions as well as many hours of helping me with my project.
Last but not least, I would like to acknowledge the love, encouragement, and support provided by my beloved father and mother Ishak Hamid and Faridah Mat.
Thank you for the support, love, care and continuous prayers for my successful completion of this research. Thank you also to my sister and brothers for their support and cheering.
Not to forget, I would also like to extend my thanks to the staff of Mechatronis Department, Kulliyyah of Engineering for their help and contribution in producing this work. Special thanks to the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) ad International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) for the financial support throughout my studies.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ... ii
Abstract in Arabic ... iii
Approval Page ... iii
Declaration ... v
Acknowledgements ... vii
Table of Contents ... viii
List of Tables ... x
List of Figures ... xi
List of Abbreviations ... xiii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ... 1
1.1 Overview... 1
1.2 Problem Statement ... 2
1.3 Research Objectives... 2
1.4 Research Methodology ... 3
1.5 Scope Of Research ... 5
1.6 Thesis Organization ... 5
1.7 Thesis Contribution ... 6
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ... 7
2.1 Introduction... 7
2.2 Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) ... 7
2.2.1 Available Therapies for ASD Children ... 9
2.3 Human-Robot Interaction (HRI)... 11
2.3.1 Targeted Behaviour ... 12
2.3.2 Robots for ASD Children ... 14
2.3.3 Interaction Measurements ... 19
2.4 Robot Selection ... 21
2.5 Summary ... 28
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... 30
3.1 Introduction... 30
3.2 Framework Development ... 30
3.2.1 Modules of Interaction ... 32
3.2.2 Robot ... 37
3.2.3 Criteria of Subjects ... 42
3.2.4 Proxemics Behaviour Measurement ... 43
3.3 Framework Testing ... 47
3.3.1 Experimental Setup ... 47
3.3.2 Subjects ... 51
3.4 Validation ... 51
3.4.1 Part 1: Completion Of Tasks For All Modules ... 52
3.4.2 Part 2: Engagement During The Experiment ... 54
3.5 Summary ... 56
ix
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS ... 57
4.1 Introduction... 57
4.2 Modules Of Interaction ... 57
4.2.1 Questionnaire Part 1 ... 58
4.3 Type Of Robot ... 61
4.3.1 Questionnaire Part 2 ... 62
4.4 Image-Based Proxemic Behaviour Measurement Method ... 68
4.4.1 Average Distance During Engagement ... 68
4.4.2 Combination ... 73
4.5 Summary ... 75
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION ... 77
5.1 Conclusion ... 77
5.2 Limitation ... 79
5.3 Recommendation And Future Work ... 80
REFERENCES ... 82
APPENDIX I: IREC APPROVAL ... 85
APPENDIX II: LABVIEW CODING ... 87
APPENDIX III: QUESTIONNAIRES RESULTS ... 88
x
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1 Therapies for Children with ASD 11
Table 2.2 Measuring Methods for Existing Robot Interactions 19 Table 2.3 Features Comparison between Existing Commercial Robots for
Autistic Children 25
Table 3.1 Inputs from Special Education Teacher and Therapist 34
Table 3.2 Information of the Subject 51
Table 3.3 Likert-Scale for Questionnaire 52
Table 4.1 Summary of Modules of Interaction 58
Table 4.2 Sign Test for Each Subject (Questionnaire Part 2) 68
Table 4.3 Spearman Correlation Coefficient 72
Table 4.4 Sign Test for Each Subject (Combination) 75
xi
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1 Flowchart of the Research 4
Figure 2.1 Existing Robots for Autism 18
Figure 2.2 Creations of Robot that can be build 27
e
Figur 3.1 Block Diagram of Research Mrthodology 30
Figure 3.2 Framework of Interactions 31
Figure 3.3 Development of Modules of Interaction 32
Figure 3.4 Example of Inappropriate Real Image 36
Figure 3.5 Real Images for Module 3 37
Figure 3.6 Rero Daisy Chained Connection 38
Figure 3.7 Humanoid Robot (Left) and Pet-Like Mobile Robot (Right) 39 Figure 3.8 Rero Animator Interface for Humanoid Robot 40
Figure 3.9 Rero Planner Interface 41
Figure 3.10 Rero Remote Interface 41
ure
Fig 3.11 Flowchart of Robot Formation 42
Figure 3.12 Flowchart of Image Processing 43
Figure 3.13 Top View of Robot with Colour Template Attached 44
Figure 3.14 Block Diagram for Colour Tracking 45
Figure 3.15 Block Diagram for ROI Tracking 46
Figure 3.16 ROI Tracking 46
Figure 3.17 Top View of Layout for Experimental Setup 48
Figure 3.18 View from Webcam at NASOM 49
Figure 3.19 View from Webcam at IAC 49
Figure 4.1 Results of Completion of Tasks for Humanoid Robot 59 re
Figu 4.2 Results of Completion of Tasks for Mobile Robot 60
xii
Figure 4.3 Percentage of Success Rate for Five Modules 61 Figure 4.4 Scores of Questionnaire Part 2 with Humanoid Robot 63 Figure 4.5 Scores of Questionnaire Part 2 with Mobile Robot 63 Figure 4.6 Population on Difference between Scores for Humanoid and
Mobile Robot 65
Figure 4.7 Result of Sign test for Questionnaire Part 2 67 Figure 4.8 Average Distance between the Subject and the Robot with
Respect to Every Module 70
igure
F 4.9 Spearman Correlation Results 72
Figure 4.10 Result of Sign Test for Combination 74
xiii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
AAC Augmentative and Alternative Communication ABA Applied Behaviour Analysis
ASD Autism Spectrum Disorder DOF degree-of-freedom
ECG electrocardiogram
ECS Emotion Cartesian Space
FACE Facial Automation for Conveying Emotion HRI Human-Robot Interaction
IAC IDEAS Autism Centre
IREC IIUM Research Ethics Committee NAS National Autistic Society
NASOM National Autism Society of Malaysia PECS Picture Exchange Communication System ROI region of interest
SAR socially assistive robotics
SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences TEACCH Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related
Communication-Handicapped Children
1
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
1.1 OVERVIEW
According to the National Autism Society of Malaysia (NASOM), at least one in every one hundred fifty children were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in 2010. The latest statistics in 2018 shows an increase up to 45%, which is one in every sixty eight children. ASD is a developmental disorder that negatively affects social interaction and communication. There is no medication for autism and it is not curable.
However, there are some treatments or therapies that can improve communications and social skills. The children can behave and react closely to normal children through rehabilitations and intervention.
ASD can be classified into three groups, which are mild, average and severe.
For ASD children in the mild group, they can still listen to instructions given by the therapists. However, for the severe group, each of them requires a special observation from therapists. Most of the researchers tend to do an early intervention on mild children rather than severe because they are much easier to handle during the experiment.
Human-robot interaction (HRI) has been widely used as the main therapy for children with ASD. Previous research suggested that HRI gives a better result in interactions as compared to the human-human interaction (Ricks & Colton, 2010;
Scassellati, Henny Admoni, & Matarić, 2012). Most of the robotic intervention gives a better result during the therapy session, where the children manage to engage in the playful interactions and develop their communication and social skills.
2
Robotic-based rehabilitations have the ability to improve communication skills of children with autism. Previous researchers built their own prototypes or robots in investigating ways to optimize the engagement and learning experience of the ASD children. The interaction between the robots and the children include language skills, eye contact, imitation behavior, facial expression and movement of the robot.
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
Every child with ASD is unique, thus one solution cannot fit them all. Yet robotic framework that have been developed to intervene with ASD children behaviour have fixed features that are limited on certain tasks. Therefore, an extendable HRI framework with a set of modules of interaction and two types of robot is proposed. This project focuses on developing a robotic framework that contains modules of interaction with aim to improve ASD children’s social and communication skills. The robots are designed to be attractive and have extendable features to do tasks needed for the engagement with ASD children.
1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The study is aimed to achieve the following objectives:
1- To determine the characteristics of robots that is needed for an effective human-robot interaction (HRI) system specifically for children with ASD.
2- To develop an interactive robotic-based rehabilitation framework for ASD children with selected robot and modules of interaction.
3- To evaluate the preliminary success rate of the robotic-based rehabilitation framework for ASD children using questionnaires and proxemics behaviour measurement method.
3 1.4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In order to ensure the smoothness of this project, the following procedures were implemented. The flowchart of this research is provided in Figure 1.1. An ethic approval from IIUM Research Ethics Committee (IREC) have been sought and approved with identification number of IREC465 (Appendix I).
1. A thorough literature review is conducted focusing on the behaviour of children with ASD, features of some existing robots and modules for human-robot interaction (HRI).
2. A suitable robot is selected as a medium to interact with children with ASD during therapy session. Two forms of robots, which are a humanoid and a pet-like mobile robot are developed.
3. Interaction modules are developed and approval by a special education teacher and a therapist is sought. The modules are programmed into both robots to see how the children will react towards them.
4. A framework of human-robot interaction (HRI) is developed and tested on a mild ASD child that is not considered as subject for this experiment until it is completed.
5. During the experiment, the interactions between ASD children and both robots are recorded. The interactions are assessed based on engagement levels and completion of tasks.
6. All data collected are evaluated and documented.
4
Figure 1.1 Flowchart of the Research
Start
Literature review
Robot selection
Modules selection
Special education teacher confirmation
Modules accepted?
Framework development
Testing framework
Testing completed
?
Data collection
Data evaluation
Documentation
End
Objective 1: To determine the characteristics of robot
Objective 2: To develop an interactive rehabilitation framework
Objective 3: To evaluate the preliminary success rate of HRI framework
YES NO
NO
YES
5 1.5 SCOPE OF RESEARCH
This research focuses on early intervention of ASD children’s behaviour with human- robot interaction. In this research, subjects are made up of mild and moderate ASD children in the age range of five to six years old. The subjects selected are children from an advanced class of National Autism Society of Malaysia (NASOM) and IDEAS Autism Centre (IAC). A commercial robot, Rero is selected as the medium of interaction in the rehabilitation session. Modules of interaction that are used for this project are made simple to capture the initial response of ASD children with the robots.
1.6 THESIS ORGANIZATION The report is divided into five chapters:
1- CHAPTER 1: This chapter describes the overview of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and human-robot interaction. It discusses the problem statement of this research. The research objectives, research methodology, and scope of this research are also explained in this chapter.
2- CHAPTER 2: This chapter presents a literature review of previous research that are relevant to this topic. Some of the highlighted points are behaviours of ASD children, design of robots, features of robot, and modules of interaction that are effective for early intervention. This chapter also discusses the robot selection for this project.
3- CHAPTER 3: The research methodology of this dissertation is explained in this chapter. It comprises of the process of framework development, framework testing and validation. Elements of framework, which are the modules, subjects, robots and measurements are thoroughly described. This
6
chapter also describes the experiments as well as data analysis and validation.
4- CHAPTER 4: This chapter discusses the results of this experiment which consists of modules of interaction, type of robot, and proxemics behaviour measurement. The three framework components are validated using two validated questionnaires.
5- CHAPTER 5: This chapter discusses the achievement of objectives, limitations of the study, and recommendation for future study.
1.7 THESIS CONTRIBUTION
A few papers have been published as the part of thesis contribution:
1. N. I. Ishak, H. M. Yusof, S. N. Sidek and Z. Jaalan, "Interactive robotic platform for education and language skill rehabilitation," 2017 IEEE 4th International Conference on Smart Instrumentation, Measurement and Application (ICSIMA), Putrajaya, 2017, pp. 1-5.
doi: 10.1109/ICSIMA.2017.8312031
2. N. I. Ishak, H. Md. Yusof, S. N. Sidek and N. Rusli, "Robot Selection in Robotic Intervention for ASD Children," 2018 IEEE-EMBS Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Sciences (IECBES), Sarawak, Malaysia, 2018, pp. 156-160.
doi: 10.1109/IECBES.2018.8626679
3. N. I. Ishak, H. Md. Yusof, S. N. Sidek and N. Rusli, " Modules Of Interaction for ASD Children Using Rero Robot (Humanoid),
"7th IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics Engineering (ICOM), Putrajaya, Malaysia, 2019 -Accepted-
7
CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 INTRODUCTION
There were a few research have been done for the education and language skill rehabilitation, especially for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Many types of robots have been developed for this rehabilitation, and most of them have the same objective, which is to help the children with ASD to increase their communication and social skills with others. Even though these robots have the same objectives, they still have their own design, looks, behaviour, and methods to approach the ASD children. Generally, the robots were designed as a ‘friend’ for the children so that the children will not feel intimidated and can easily get along with the robot.
In this section, we will discuss the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), therapies available, and human-robot interaction (HRI) that includes targeted behavior, existing robots for ASD children, and interaction measurement. Finally, selection of the robot that is available in the market also will be discussed in this chapter.
2.2 AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER (ASD)
The National Autistic Society (NAS) defined Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as a lifelong, developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with and relates to other people, and how they experience the world around them. ASD is a disorder with a range of manifestations that can occur to different degrees and in a variety of forms. The exact cause or causes of ASD are still unknown.
According to NAS, people with ASD are associated with learning disabilities and impaired in social communication and interaction (B. Robins, Dautenhahn,
8
Boekhorst, & Billard, 2005). People with ASD have difficulty in managing their common life social situations and interpersonal relationship. They usually impaired in understanding other’s feelings and intentions, have difficulties with verbal and nonverbal communication, and problems in understanding facial expressions and gestures.
Leo Kanner M. D. (1943) was the first person to acknowledge a group of children who possess characteristics of showing extreme disengagement and disability in forming formal social relations with people (Shamsuddin et al., 2012). He stated that each individual with ASD is unique since there are no two people with ASD who possess the same autistic behaviours. For instance, a child may lack in his/her social communication, unable to participate in a conversation, or hold eye-contact, but that child may have the ability to write, do the math, and even excellent in doing arts.
Basically, the main impairments that are characteristics of children with ASD lie in the area of social interaction, social communication, and repetitive or inflexible behaviour (Dautenhahn & Werry, 2000; Shamsuddin et al., 2012). One of the characteristics of children that have socialization problems is that they are lack of social or emotional responding. Unlike normal children, they lack spontaneous seeking to share their enjoyment or interest. They have a difficulty in forming social relationships and an impairment in understanding others’ feelings, mental states and intentions. Their expression cannot be easy being interpreted, as they will not show their true feeling to others. Therefore, it is not easy for the normal person to understand what they really want to do or feel.
Impairments in social communication are including verbal and non-verbal communication. They have difficulties in understanding facial expressions and gesture, and a difficulty in understanding metaphors or other ‘non-literal’ interpretations of
9
verbal and non-verbal language. They unable to interpret what people say or do with respect to the person’s emotional, intentional and motivational states. Lack of varied and spontaneous make-believe play or social imitative play also can be considered as communication problems. When they try to talk, they will just babble around without a proper sentence. They also delay in or lack of their own spoken language, and have inflexible and repetitive use of the language.
The other main characteristics are they have repetitive or inflexible behaviour.
They have a rigid following of non-functional routines. Their daily schedule, the arrangement of their things or placement in class cannot change suddenly, if not they will notice that and feel unpleasant about it. They also have an obsession with parts of objects rather than the object itself. For example, they like to rotate the wheels of a toy car, rather than push the car forward or backward. They are also interested in an inflexible and repetitive movement as in dancing choreography.
2.2.1 Available Therapies for ASD Children
As this disorder is not curable, some therapies developed to improve the impairments characteristics of ASD children. The available therapies consist of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) therapy, occupational therapy, and Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) therapy. Those therapies have their own concepts and ways to do, as there are many traits of ASD and one cannot fit all. The therapies are able to tackle children that have social interaction and communication problem such as talk, prompt expression and follow instruction, and also to improve their motor skills.
Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication-Handicapped Children (TEACCH) and Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) are applying AAC therapy. AAC therapy uses external support such as cards, pictures, and
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symbols to interact with the children. There is stereotype facial expressions pictures or traffic semaphore that has been used to teach the children to recognize emotional states and express their own emotional states. In addition, a mobile game (Porcino, Trevisan, Clua, Rodrigues, & Barbosa, 2015), robotic toy (Barakova, Gillessen, & Feijs, 2009), building game and art-craft activities (Srinivasan, Park, Neelly, & Bhat, 2015) have been applied using these two therapies to encounter their emotion expression and motor skills.
Occupational therapy is a sensory-integration therapy that can help children that are less sensitive to light, sound, and touch. This therapy session always person-directed and never involves forceful completion of tasks. It contains movement of the body such as playing (Conn, Liu, Sarkar, Stone, & Warren, 2008), joint attention (Anzalone, Boucenna, Ivaldi, & Chetouani, 2015), and dancing (Srinivasan, Eigsti, Neelly, & Bhat, 2016) in order to improve the motor skills of the children. A robot also is a suitable medium of interaction that is used for imitation purpose as the children can easily follow the robot movements, as it starts moving his head or hands (B. Robins et al., 2005; Ben Robins, Dautenhahn, & Dickerson, 2009).
Finally, ABA therapy is a well-known approach that uses Lovaas method (Md Dai, 2014) and it uses the concept of one-to-one interaction so that the teacher can focus more and initialize the behaviour of the children in a proper way. This therapy consists of discrete trials (repetitive until success), reinforcement during discrete trials, prompting (showing the way to success), generalization, and incidental teaching (give instructions). This therapy is a way to observe the children’s behaviour while promoting a successful event in order to make them excited for being in a therapy session. Table 2.1 compares the therapies available for ASD children.
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Table 2.1 Therapies for Children with ASD
Name AAC therapy Occupational
therapy
ABA therapy Description Uses external
support to achieve the desired response
Sensory-integration therapy
One-to-one series of consultation with therapies
Example TEACCH, PECS Holding, music Social and communication Movement Limited within the
bounds of the activity
Limited within the bounds of the activity
Freedom of movement Expression Actively encourage Limited within the
bounds of the activity
Limited
Reward Situations are constructed and the desired response as prompted and rewarded
No reward Undesirable
behaviours are ignored, while desired behaviours are rewarded Combination
with other treatment
Some method can be used with this therapy
Should be used with other treatment
Is designed to be used without other methods, but some are complimentary
From Table 2.1, it can be seen that every type of therapies has their own advantages and disadvantages at certain points. But, all these therapies give positive results towards the improvement of the children’s behaviour through their own ways.
For this project, we will try to develop a set of interaction module that can combine these three therapies into this framework since all of them can be combined with other treatment during the therapy session.
2.3 HUMAN-ROBOT INTERACTION (HRI)
An assistive robot can be defined as one that gives support or aid to a human user in rehabilitation robotics. In robot based interference, human-robot interaction (HRI) architecture has been recognized as a new probable approach in the research on autism.
