Design a Cloud-enabled Humanoid Robot Application System to Assess the ABA Learning for Autistic Children

Abstract

In recent years, the autistic community has gradually attracted widespread social attention. There are currently many difficulties with autism therapies in China, such as high market demand, high prices and inadequate autism teachers. With the continuous development of robotics and digital therapeutics in recent years, there are increasingly potentials of applying robotics to the autism companionship therapy. To demonstrate this possibility, in this paper we apply the cloud-based robotics and the practical needs of the Applied- Behaviour-Analysis (ABA) learning for autistic children, and design an a cloud-enabled humanoid robot application system, in order to reduce the teacher’s workload. We look into a typical ABA therapy process for autistic children to recognize fruits. Following the Childhood Autism Rating Scale and the Autism Behavior Checklist, we design an autistic child digital model to interact with this humanoid robot system in a Robotic Development Kit (RDK) virtual environment. This digital autistic children model mimes autistic children behaviors. Our humanoid robot is en-powered with cloud-enabled intelligence to recognize the emotions and actions of this digital autistic child in order to assess the cognitive progress in his ABA learning. This robotic system also implements various functions to enable interaction with this digital autistic child, such as automatic navigation, intelligent voice interaction, visual recognition and robotic dance. Our system prototype demonstrates the feasibility of designing a cloud-enabled humanoid robot to accompany autistic children.