Robot With Artificial Skin Could Teach Autistic Children Social Skills

A team of British scientists is working on creating a robot named Kaspar that is intended to help children suffering from autism develop basic social skills. Kaspar is being built as a part of a larger project that aims to explore the use of robots as therapeutic and educational tools.

In general, children with autism do not like touching or being touched. Interacting with Kaspar should help these children learn basic touch, which is an essential part of playing with other children. The scientists intend to cover the robot with artificial skin with tactile sensors embedded in it. Based on the information from these sensors, Kaspar should be able to detect different types of touch and either discourage or encourage different styles of how the children play with it. The scientists hope that autistic children will be able to learn social skills by playing with Kaspar and carry them over onto the interaction with other children. See the details about Kaspar

Meet KASPAR
http://kaspar.feis.herts.ac.uk/

Find out more about other robots:
Rise of the Robots -The Future of Artificial Intelligence at Scientific American
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=rise-of-the-robots

Why NASA Is Sending a Robot to Space That Looks Like You at Wired Science
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/robonaut-rides-the-shuttle/

Ocean Probe Lost at Sea at AAAS
http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/03/ocean-probe-lost-at-sea.html

Visit roboworld™ exhibit at Carnegie Science Center to learn how robots think, sense and act!
http://www.visitroboworld.com/visitroboworld/index.aspx