Social robot could help autistic adults find work

Adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) can find the workplace a challenging environment. They can often struggle to understand social signals and find forging relationships with colleagues more difficult. Scientists from Scotland believe robotics could play a positive role in helping them deal with some of the problems faced at work and help reduce the high unemployment rate for autistic adults.

Researchers at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh have built Alyx, a robot colleague that teaches people to recognize social cues.

“Adults with autism tell us they have real problems of getting employment and keeping employment. And the main issue is not that they can't do the work, it's the workplace politics, especially being able to understand what people really mean rather than simply what they say. And part of that is understanding emotional expression, so that's why robots like Alyx are going to help them,” said Thusha Rajendran, associate professor of psychology.

While the autism spectrum is very large, people with autism can often find it hard to decipher basic human communication and emotion. In this way, Alyx's facial features were designed purposely not to overload them with too much information: “It's humanoid, but it's not human-like,” added Rajendran.

During a session with Alyx, autistic adults would complete a variety of clerical tasks, such as filing paper. Alyx then generates either an approving or disapproving facial expression - based on task success - as these are the two most commonly used expressions in the workplace. By learning to identify these facial expressions, Alyx teaches people to recognize and understand social cues critical to work place interactions.

“We're creating a robot that can respond in a human-like way. And that's what's going to be the effective part of the skills training for adults with autism. They're not just providing a source of input, they're actually experiencing the whole behavior time-line; the input, the process and then the output,” said Peter McKenna, research associate at Heriot-Watt.

Rajendran added: “What you're trying to do is alter the environment through training, through helping, rather than changing the person.”

A camera mounted in Alyx's head will also provide additional feedback to therapists who say subtleties in body language can convey a lot of information.

The Alyx robot is currently a prototype, with just a head and arms. The team plans to build a full-bodied, autonomous version, which will be installed in a mock workplace where autistic adults can take part in more realistic training sessions. Clinical trials with then ensue.

A similar robot, called Kaspar, was built by a team from the University of Hertfordshire to help children with autism. Like Alyx, the Kaspar robot has deliberately simplified features, and helps kids learn social interaction and communication skills through games and songs. Kaspar is currently being tested in controlled trials with 40 children before moving to large-scale clinical trials.

REUTERS