Robot-Enhanced Therapy: Development and Validation of Supervised Autonomous Robotic System for Autism Spectrum Disorders Therapy

19©2019IEEER obot-assisted therapy (RAT) offers potential advantages for improving the social skills of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).This article provides an overview of the developed technology and clinical results of the EC-FP7funded Development of Robot-Enhanced therapy for children with AutisM spectrum disorders (DREAM) project, which aims to develop the next level of RAT in both clinical and technological perspectives, commonly referred to as robot-enhanced therapy (RET).Within this project, a supervised autonomous robotic system is collaboratively developed by an interdisciplinary consortium including psychotherapists, cognitive scientists, roboticists, computer scientists, and ethicists, which allows robot control to exceed classical remote control methods, e.g., Wizard of Oz (WoZ), while ensuring safe and ethical robot behavior.Rigorous clinical studies are conducted to validate the efficacy of RET.Current results indicate that RET can obtain an equivalent performance compared to that of human standard therapy for children with ASDs.We also discuss the next steps of developing RET robotic systems. Toward Robot-Enhanced TherapyASDs are identified by widespread abnormalities in social interactions and communication, together with restricted interests and repetitive behavior [1].For children with ASDs, these symptoms can be efficiently reduced through early (cognitive) behavioral intervention programs, ideally starting at the preschool age [2].This type of intervention is taught on a one-to-one basis in school and/or at home by caregivers (therapists, teachers, and parents) and must be intensive and extensive [2], [3].This process requires a significant amount of human workload to carry out therapeutic sessions as well as to manage a child's performance data.Using robots for autism therapy has received considerable attention over the past two decades [4].Similar to animals and computers, robots can provide simple and predictable interactions, during which people with ASDs generally feel comfortable; however, they have several advantages over classical therapies [5], such as the repeatability of the medium's behavior, embodiment of the medium, and hygienic safety.RAT enables embodied interactions, such as increasing engagement and attention and decreasing social anxiety [6], which are appealing to many children with ASDs.During a child-robot interaction, RAT robots can simultaneously provide social cues while maintaining simplicity and