Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Jun 25;9(7):953.
doi: 10.3390/children9070953.

Social Humanoid Robots for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Review of Modalities, Indications, and Pitfalls

Alfio Puglisi  1 , Tindara Caprì  1   2 , Loris Pignolo  3 , Stefania Gismondo  1 , Paola Chilà  1 , Roberta Minutoli  1 , Flavia Marino  1 , Chiara Failla  1 , Antonino Andrea Arnao  1 , Gennaro Tartarisco  1 , Antonio Cerasa  1   3   4 , Giovanni Pioggia  1
Affiliations
Review

Social Humanoid Robots for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Review of Modalities, Indications, and Pitfalls

Alfio Puglisi et al. Children (Basel). .

Abstract

Robot-assisted therapy (RAT) is a promising area of translational neuroscience for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). It has been widely demonstrated that this kind of advanced technological tool provides a reliable and efficient intervention for promoting social skills and communication in children with ASD. This type of treatment consists of a human-assisted social robot acting as an intervention mediator to increase competence and skills in children with ASD. Several social robots have been validated in the literature; however, an explicit technical comparison among devices has never been performed. For this reason, in this article, we provide an overview of the main commercial humanoid robots employed for ASD children with an emphasis on indications for use, pitfalls to be avoided, and recent advances. We conclude that, in the near future, a new generation of devices with high levels of mobility, availability, safety, and acceptability should be designed for improving the complex triadic interaction among teachers, children, and robots.

Keywords: autism; humanoid; robot-assisted therapy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Localization of stepper-motors inside NAO robot.
Figure 2
Figure 2
NAO robot.
Figure 3
Figure 3
General characteristics of QTrobot.
Figure 4
Figure 4
QTrobot.
Figure 5
Figure 5
KASPAR robot (a) and sensors localization (b).
Figure 6
Figure 6
KASPAR.
Figure 7
Figure 7
FACE robot.
Figure 8
Figure 8
ZENO.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Sharma S.R., Gonda X., Tarazi F.I. Autism Spectrum Disorder: Classification, diagnosis and therapy. Pharmacol. Ther. 2018;190:91–104. doi: 10.1016/j.pharmthera.2018.05.007. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Leekam S. Social cognitive impairment and autism: What are we trying to explain? Philos. Trans. R Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. 2016;371:20150082. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0082. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Berkovits L., Eisenhower A., Blacher J. Emotion regulation in young children with autism spectrum disorders. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 2017;47:68–79. doi: 10.1007/s10803-016-2922-2. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lai M.C., Lombardo M.V., Baron-Cohen S. Autism. Lancet. 2014;383:896–910. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(13)61539-1. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Maglione M.A., Gans D., Das L., Timbie J., Kasari C., Technical Expert Panel. HRSA Autism Intervention Research—Behavioral (AIR-B) Network Nonmedical interventions for children with ASD: Recommended guidelines and further research needs. Pediatrics. 2012;130:S169–S178. doi: 10.1542/peds.2012-0900O. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources