Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS
Robots as physical interaction partners and development tools
Some things that most people do entirely at the unconscious level pose enormous challenges for autistic children: correctly recognizing and interpreting the emotions of the person they are interacting with and responding accordingly.
The joint ERIK project therefore aims to develop a robotic platform that addresses new interaction strategies in treatments for children with impaired socioemotional functioning, such as children with autism.
Our approach involves:
- Integrating sensor-based emotion recognition based on facial expressions, speech and physiological signals
- Using multiple therapeutic interaction approaches to create innovative child-robot interaction
- Boosting autistic children’s ability to communicate through playful training and positive encouragement (e.g. for successful learning outcomes)