Desenvolvimento de um robô socialmente assistivo com controle baseado em comportamento de seleção de ação para interação com crianças com TEA

Abstract

This research is part of the Socially Assistive Robotics theme and proposes the construction of a new version of the robotic platform MARIA (Mobile Autonomous Robot for Interaction with Autistics) for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The research aimed to meet the future end users of NEW-MARIA: the therapist and the child. To do so, it focused on the development of the robotic structure (structural and playful parts), a semi-autonomous behavior-based control, action selection architecture, integration architecture with sensors and peripherals external to the robot, and control of the robot. We analyzed the errors related to the robot's mobile control, as well as the safety rules adopted to guarantee the child's well-being. In addition, we evaluated the effectiveness of the proposed communication architecture, by means of the response time and the correctness rate in relation to the commands sent, and the results obtained through an experimental application of behavior-based control. As for the structure analysis, a structured questionnaire was applied with 36 children to evaluate their opinion on the playful part and possible aspects of robot improvement.