Interactive behavior design in humanoid robot towards joint attention of children with cerebral palsy with human therapists

Abstract

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a lifelong physical disorder of movement and posture, at times associated with other medical and cognitive impairment including joint attention. Nowadays, advancement of robotic technology promises potential application to CP rehabilitation. Previous study resulted that robotic technology has successfully elicited interest and joint attention in young children. This study proposes the development and application of a human-robot interaction method for facilitating joint attention skills in rehabilitation for children with CP. This paper proposes a method of using a humanoid robot to initiate joint attention between therapist and/or parents and the child in therapy session. Four interactive scenarios have been designed in the human-robot interaction. Clinical experiment with children with CP will be conducted in the near future.