Behavior Exploration of Humanoid Robot NAO and Comparative Interaction Study of Autistic Children with the Robot and Human

Abstract

There lies a good possibility that autistic children of moderately impaired intelligence will find humanoid robots more relatable to them than human being. Hence, they may find it more enticing and comfortable to interact with those humanoid robots. The main goal of this paper is to study these children's interaction with the NAO robot to infer if there is a significant distinction in the communicative behaviors of these children compared to interacting with typical human being. Our analysis of behavioral changes of autistic children with robot and human can be helpful to observe the deficiencies of their communication skill while interacting with typical human being and to see if there is any improvement in their interaction when the human agent is replaced by a robot agent. Depending on the outcome, we can examine the correctness of the probability that a humanoid robot can serve as a better teaching and recreational agent than human.