Image provided by the University of Hertfordshire
Meet KASPAR: A small, human-like robot designed to teach children with autism about social interaction. KASPAR stands for Kinesics and Synchronisation in Personal Assistant Robotics and was developed by the Adaptive Systems Research Group at the University of Hertfordshire.
According to the Adaptive Systems Research Group, the goal of the project is not to create a robot that is indistinguishable from a human, but rather to teach disabled children how to improve their playing and social interaction skills through a robotic toy:
“Our aim is to study what types of human-robot interactions a minimal set of expressive robot features can afford. The goal is not perfect realism, but optimal realism for rich interaction. KASPAR has 8 degrees of freedom in the head and neck and 6 in the arms and hands. The face is a silicon-rubber mask, which is supported on an aluminum frame. It has 2 DOF eyes fitted with video cameras, and a mouth capable of opening and smiling.”
For a demonstration of KASPAR’s abilities, please click on the video below:
Another interesting feature of KASPAR is the introduction of artificial skin. Researchers hope to install sensor technology in the robot’s skin, which may provide tactical feedback from areas of the robot’s body. This innovation is known as “Roboskin”:
The goal is to make the robot able to respond to different styles of how the children play with KASPAR in order to help the children to develop ‘socially appropriate’ playful interaction (e.g. not too aggressive) when interacting with the robot and other people.
Professor Kerstin Dautenhahn is currently leading a team of researchers at the University of Hertfordshire, who are working on developing the robot skin and embedded tactical sensors. Professor Dautenhahn explains, “Children with autism have problems with touch, often with either touching or being touched. The idea is to put skin on the robot as touch is a very important part of social development and communication and the tactile sensors will allow the robot to detect different types of touch and it can then encourage or discourage different approaches.
*For more information on KASPAR, please visit the original press release from the University of Hertfordshire.
*For a BBC news presentation on KASPAR, please click here.