How robots can be used to help children with autism and other special needs.

Hosted by: Justin Ratliff

Introduction: Who Am I?Justin RatliffI live in Monroe, OH (known for the flea

markets and outlet mall)Day Job: I work for UnitedHealth Care as an

Sr. IT analystSide Job: Owner and Operator of J2R

Scientific (www.j2rscientific.com)A life long robot builder and enthusiast President of The Robotics Club of Yahoo –

www.trcy.org

My Interest in Robotics:Robotics for artificial intelligence research,

after all who would not want a robot like Johnny Five or an Android like Data from Star Trek.

Security (personal/home)Autonomous FightingMedical Assistant Care

….and Robots to help child, especially those with Autism or other Special Needs.

Autism and Special Needs:What is Autism?

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and autism are both general terms for a group of complex disorders of brain development. These disorders are characterized, in varying degrees, by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors.

Autism and Special Needs:What is Autism?

ASD can be associated with intellectual disability, difficulties in motor coordination and attention and physical health issues such as sleep and gastrointestinal disturbances. Some persons with ASD excel in visual skills, music, math and art.

Autism appears to have its roots in very early brain development. However, the most obvious signs of autism and symptoms of autism tend to emerge between 2 and 3 years of age.

Autism and Special Needs:What is Other Special Needs?

Other Special Needs would be needs of children that overlap with the needs of children with Autism.

For example children with Down Syndrome (while it is completely medically different from Autism) can exhibit similar learning, social interaction and physical difficulties as children with Autism.

Autism and Special Needs:Why I am passionate about this research? I like solving problems and building robots..I was looking for new project to throw myself

into….I saw Autism the Musical on HBOIt’s a documentary that follows five autistic

children as they work together to create and perform a live musical production.

After seeing it, I knew robots could help child with autism.

Autism and Special Needs:How can a robot help children with autism or

other special needs?Robots can provide a safe and comforting way to

interact socially by acting as a social mediator Robots allow children to interact how they wantRobots facilitate learningRobots remove the human elementRobots need help to interact in the worldRobots can be customizedRobots are fun!

Autism and Special Needs:How can a robot help children with autism or

other special needs?

Research shows that robots are helping to reveal a potential shift in kids’ social and learning psychologies—moving from acts of knowledge transmission toward acts of exploration, collaboration, and creation.

Robotics and Autism:History of robots used to help children with

Autism… A long time ago, in an island nation far, far

away…by accident (that’s my story and I’m sticking

to it)The UK and Europe Lead with way with

projects likeThe AuRoRA Project: (circa 2003, University

of Hertfordshire, UK)

Robotics and Autism:History of robots used to help children with

AutismiCub - an on going Italian research project

aimed at artificial intelligence primarily but some research is directed towards Autism simply because it is a social robot.

Robotics and Autism:History of robots used to help children with

AutismKASPAR - which stands for Kinesics and

Synchronization in Personal Assistant Robotics. Sprang from the AuRoRA Project

Robotics and Autism:The current state of robots designed for

children with AutismThere are lots of new robot products coming

out now to help children with AutismNearly all robots designed or advertised as

being for children with Autism can be used for many other applications such as research, personal use or general education

Nearly all robots designed for children with Autism are extremely cost prohibitive!

Robotics and Autism:The current state of robots designed for

children with AutismWhat does cost prohibitive mean? If the robot costs as much as a entry level car

its “own ability” is going to be limited to the wealthy or Universities or Medical Research Centers or Hospitals.

Most robots cost upwards of $12,000.00 Let’s look at a couple…

Robotics and Autism:The current state of robots designed for

children with AutismHanson Robotics: RoboKindFrubber skin with emotionally expressive

faceCost: 12k to 17.5K

Robotics and Autism:The current state of robots designed for

children with AutismNAO robot from Aldebaran Robotics, a

French based companyONLY available for research institution Cost: 16K

Robotics and Autism:The current state of robots designed for

children with AutismKeepon - developed by a Ph.D. student in

robotics at Carnegie Mellon UniversityBeing used to study how children interact

sociallyA toy, selling for $20-40It really just dances

Robotics and Autism:The current state of robots designed for

children with AutismA couple of other interesting designs:

Robotics and Autism:The current state of robots designed for

children with AutismAnd a lower end design:

My Robotics Development:The history of my development work to create

a robot to help children with AutismYul – Microcontroller linked to a PC running

my first AI robot control software built in .Net

My Robotics Development:The history of my development work to create

a robot to help children with AutismReese – Microcontroller based mobile robot. Wireless link. Better developed custom AI software. Refined with help from Pixar Character Developer and a Dr. of Clinical Psychiatry.

My Robotics Development:My list of features such a robot should included in its

designIt should include interactive head and armsIt should be mobileIt should be wirelessIt should offer a “puppet” or “avatar” modeThe software should include easy to adjust

scripting and control interfacesThe software should be easy to add additional

software modules, functions or contentIt should be affordable for home useIt should not be creepy…

My Robotics Development:What makes for a Creepy Robot?Creepiness is obviously subjective from person

to person, but overall there is a measurable effect called the “Uncanny Valley”.

The uncanny valley is a hypothesis in the field of robotics and 3D computer animation, which holds that when human replicas look and act almost, but not perfectly, like actual human beings, it can cause a response of revulsion among human observers. The "valley" refers to the dip in a graph of the comfort level of humans as a function of a robot’s human likeness.

My Robotics Development:How artificial intelligence is incorporated in my

design…or will be, as I am creating a new software

frameworkLearn about people the robot interacts withLearn patterns of interactionIdentify ProblemsProblem SolveStore information learnedApply information to new problems

My Robotics Development:A very short break down of different artificial

intelligence methodsNeural Networks – Numenta – attempts to

replicate biological brains; human or animalExpert Systems – Used in Hospitals and

Defense Areas – attempts to store knowledge in IF-THEN relational ways

Behavior Based or SubSumption Based – module based behaviors

Biological Interfaces

My Robotics Development:Behavior Based SubSumption in action: Subsumption architecture is a reactive

robot architecture heavily associated with behavior-based robotics. The term was introduced by Prof. Rodney Brooks and colleagues in 1986 at MIT.

A subsumption architecture is a way of decomposing complicated intelligent behavior into many "simple" behavior modules

My Robotics Development:Behavior Based SubSumption in action: Lets say you wanted to make a robot:

Explore, Follow a Light, Avoid Loud Noises and most importantly Avoid Obstacles. You might have end up with a setup like this…

My Robotics Development:Neurons vs. Behavior Based designs and why I

choose Behavior BasedBecause you are either a Kirk or Spock when

it comes to robot design.Neural Net designs based on neuron

research from the 40’s have not yielded what I would call intelligent system.

Behavior Based designed let you accomplish more results in less time

My Robotics Development:My current production prototypeBased on the J2 Robot ChassisFeatures a wireless cameraArticulated armsManual clamp handsSmall, light weightEasily ProgrammableEstimated price: under $499

My Robotics Development:The guts of the RobotBasicStamp 2 Activity Board MicroController16 i/o lines (plus 2 serial)BlueTooth serial link to PCWireless Camera link to PCLaser (red dot)PING Sonar Unit for distance measurementOnboard Text-to-Speech for voice output7 servo motors and 6 AA batteries

My Robotics Development:The software and AI designMy software is going through a complete re-

write process as my previous AI framework was not sustainable and mostly hodge-podged and blobbed together.

It will largely be based on SubSumption architecture

With a few pieces of frame work designs that I believe are going to be very unique.

My Robotics Development:The software and AI designThe basic elements of my framework are

Services, Behaviors, and Commands.

My Robotics Development:The software and AI designServices is the “Stuff” – Soooo What’s the Stuff?“Stuff” are real things in hardware or software.Hardware like: Motor controls, servo controls,

sensors, how to read sensors, lighting controls, battery monitor, sound sensors

Software like: voice recognition, text input from keyboard, Mp3 player, Video camera drivers, Internet access, email, twitter, Facebook, and external 3rd party software elements

My Robotics Development:The software and AI designBehaviors are the “How To” and where the magic

happens.Everything you would want the robot to do is

modularized into the smallest possible behaviors.Behaviors are assigned numbers; the lowest

numbers have the highest overriding say in a SubSumption system.

For example, the “Exploring and Seek Out New Life” is fine behavior, but “Power Low” would ideally trump that behavior.

Behaviors also have a way to indicate their own priority level for their desired output

My Robotics Development:The software and AI designCommands are the “To Do”There is a command filter that protects the robot

or software from crashing or just twitching with new orders every second

Commands out the output of actions…For example: if the robot speaks, drives forward,

checks power levels, reads a sensor, flashes an LED

If the act of storing data or retrieving it would be considered a “Command” as it requires an action

Question and Answers:Feel free to contact me anytime with robotics

questions. You can find me at: www.J2RScientific.com and my e-mail Weyoun7ster@gmail.com

You can also join www.TRCY.org and our group on Yahoo!

How can I build a robot?I always recommend to first put some

thought into what you really want to achieve. What is your end goal?

Let’s say, you want to build Lt. Commander Data from Star Trek..

Humanoids cost about $100K USDA custom android head might cost $25K from

Hanson RoboticsST Next Generation Costume $55 on ebay….….You don’t have 125K? Hum....

How can I build a robot?Next step is to consider your budget and how

much are you willing to spend?To ease into robotics, you should start with a

microcontroller, a book, a small set of electronics parts and a few tools

For about $200 or less you should be able to purchase everything you need separately or get a complete starter robot kit.

How can I build a robot?For microcontrollers there are a lot to pick

from but I recommend with a BasicStamp2 from www.Parallax.com or an Arduino board.

Parallax is where I direct a lot of beginners too. Their products are extremely well supported and there are tons of user created content on the web including my own.

How can I build a robot?While there are lots of free tutorials on the

web I do highly recommend to anyone wanting to build their own robot to seriously consider the book, “Robot Builder’s Bonanza, 4th edition”, by Gordon McComb

It’s like a bible for robot buildersGordon is a life long robot and technology

enthusiast and members of www.TRCY.org Gordon also runs www.budgetrobotics.com

How can I build a robot?A magazine I recommend is SERVO

magazine, which is a spinoff of Nuts and Volts magazine.

Question and Answers:Feel free to contact me anytime with robotics

questions. You can find me at: www.J2RScientific.com and my e-mail Weyoun7ster@gmail.com

You can also join www.TRCY.org and our group on Yahoo!