SMART project
Overview
SMART project
SMART Intro
A synergy between a humanoid robot and a personal mobile device as a novel intervention tool for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
-SMART project-
Erasmus+ project
KA2-Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices
KA203-Strategic Partnerships for higher education
Applied at
National Agency for European Educational Programmes and Mobility
Duration
Starting date 01.09.2018
Ending date 15.08.2021
SMART partners
Partners
- University Children’s Hospital-Skopje, Macedonia
- University of Hertfordshire-Hatfield, UK
- Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences-Zagreb, Croatia
- Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering-Skopje, Macedonia
- Beit Issie Shapiro-Amutat Avi-Ra'anana, Israel
University Children’s Hospital (UCH)-Skopje, Macedonia
UCH is a tertiary level public health institution (highest level of health care in the country), providing specialized outpatient and inpatient health care for children, at national level for all acute and most difficult chronic illnesses.
Department of psychophysiology-UCH, is highly specialized in early diagnostics and treatment of developmental disorders, with special interest on Autism Spectrum Disorders. We have trained staff in up to date diagnostic tools and early intervention treatments for children with autism.
UCH is leader of the SMART project.
University of Hertfordshire (UH)-Hatfield, UK
UH is among the most successful new universities in the UK: innovative, enterprising and business facing, with a truly international student community of over 24 000, including more than 3 800 international students from over 100 different countries.
UH has a strongly interdisciplinary team including roboticists, biologists, cognitive scientists, mathematicians and computer scientists. The group has particular expertise in Social Robotics, Human-Robot Interaction as well as Robot Learning, Learning by Observation, Cognitive Technology, Biological Systems, Artificial Intelligence, Emergence of Language and Communication, and Evolutionary Computation.
Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences (FERS)-Zagreb, Croatia
FERS is the oldest and largest university in Croatia.
Centre for Rehabilitation, within FERS, is an educational and clinical unit for 20 years and provides expert assessment, diagnostic, individual and group therapy and counseling for people with disabilities, their families and community. Center’s services are provided for newborns to school-age children, especially for ASD ones, by experts in educational rehabilitation, psychology, speech and language pathology. Through the interaction of science, practice and teaching, the Center became a place of clinical excellence. They have expertise in use of ADOS-2 and ADI-R, augmentative and alternative communication, PECS and ABA.
Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering (FCSE)-
Skopje, Macedonia
FCSE is the largest, most prestigious faculty in the field of computer science and technologies in Macedonia and among the largest faculties in the region.
FCSE holds an extensive experience in creating Apps for large systems, mobile devices, design and creation of animated sequence for mobile Apps and other computer based applications, utilizing Internet based programming and handling different forms of on-line data exchange, storage and processing with the help of designing data spreadsheets for the particular occasion. In the last 5 years, FCSE's specialized Laboratories for Intelligent systems and Cognitive robotics, where special attention has been given to programing and using robots, human-computer and especially human-robot interaction for specific target groups.
Beit Issie Shapiro-Amutat Avi-Ra'anana, Israel
Beit Issie is Israel’s leading organization in the development and provision of innovative therapies and services for children with disabilities and plays a leading role in promoting the inclusion of people with disabilities in the society.
The organization is staffed by professional from different disciplines like occupational therapists, speech therapists, educational technology specialists, and more, who are experts at integrating technology into different environments including educational frameworks, therapeutic environments and in the home. Great consideration is given to the specific needs of the individual and of their family. In addition, through many partnerships, Beit Issie works to promote the development of accessible products and Apps and provides consultation and professional guidance to technology companies and App developers.
SMART project
Project’s aims
Project's general aim is to improve joint attention, social and communicational skills of the children with autism.
Furthermore, aim is to raise the awareness for the children with autism and the daily difficulties they face.
Project’s objective
The objective of the SMART project is to develop and practically use intervention protocol through use of humanoid robot and complementary Apps for personal mobile device as a novel intervention tool for children with autism.
Context
• Autism is a lifelong disability that affects people's world perception and interaction with others. Its defined as deficits in social communication and interaction and restricted/repetitive patterns of behavior/interests/activities
• There is no “cure” for autism
• Affects 1% of the population (7.5m European citizens)
• It is a disabling condition with difficulties in independent living, self-care, educational and employment prospects. Almost half of the individuals will have intellectual impairment and never develop speech
• However, there is a range of interventions for enhancing the learning and development
• Any intervention should focus on developing child’s social skills, as it has been shown that social competence is a predictor of long-term outcomes for individuals with autism
• Children with autism should receive psychosocial intervention as a first-line treatment and this should include play-based strategies, which will have impact on their ability to gain the most from other interventions and improve their long-term outcomes
• Without appropriate intervention, autism can lead to family breakdowns, mental illness and family members becoming lifelong caregivers
• Communication deficits, as one of the core deficits in children with autism, are also present in communication between the child and his therapist
• There are promising results in the use of robots in supporting the social and emotional development of children with autism. Using robots as social mediators to engage children in tasks, allows for a simplified, predictable and reliable environment e. g. having predictable rules has been shown to be important in promoting prosocial behaviors
• This is a study of feasibility and proof of concept, in using a robot in conjunction with Apps for a personal mobile devices as a novel intervention tool for children with autism
The project activities involve:
• review of the ongoing and previous efforts in the field of socially assisted technology
• selection of participating children and introduction to the individual characteristics of each child
• finding out the expectations and experience of the parents and the therapists
• setting up tools for measuring and evaluating of project’s results
• creating robot software scenarios for KASPAR
• creating complementary Apps for personal mobile devices
• testing the effects from their use through interaction with the children in clinical, educational and home settings
• multiplier events, transnational meetings and training activities
• writing and publishing scientific papers
SMART Kaspar
In this project we used KASPAR, a humanoid social robot
The robot has been developed through more than a decade’s research by the University of Hertfordshire’s world-renowned Adaptive Systems Research Group
Kaspar can:
• Act as a social mediator, helping children to better interact and communicate with adults and other children
• Help children to explore basic emotions
• Use a range of simplified facial and body expressions, gestures and speech to interact with children and help break social isolation
• Respond autonomously to touch, using sensors on its cheeks, arms, body, hands and feet, to help children learn about socially acceptable tactile interaction
• Engage in several interactive play scenarios to help children learn fundamental social skills such as imitation and turn-taking skills that children with autism can find very challenging
• Engage pairs of children to help develop and improve collaboration skills
• Enable cognitive learning by playing games involving personal hygiene or food (Kaspar can hold a comb, toothbrush or spoon)
• Engage children in confidence building activities by jointly singing a song or drumming
Case studies are showing promising results in enhancing communication and social interaction skills in children with autism. Those case studies reported improvements in children’s behavior, suggesting benefits of KASPAR mediated interventions.
But main goal of using KASPAR is to transfer those gained skills in the interventions in real communication with people.
Kaspar’s App
Innovativity
SMART project is a new and highly interdisciplinary initiative combining robotics, ICT
and other disciplines like cognitive sciences, developmental psychology, pedagogy, human-machine interface and others, in order to open a dedicated possibility for technologies to meet the needs of children with autism.
Using the humanoid robot in conjunction with complementary Apps for personal mobile devices has never been tried before. It is a novel approach designed to support and stimulates children with autism in acquisition of skills beyond intervention sessions i. e. in daily life context.
For the first time, KASPAR was used in the clinical settings.
SMART results
Results
We conducted literature review on the use of robots and apps as intervention tools for children with autism. The scientific literature presents an increasing number of studies conducted in recent years that explore the use of robots in the education and therapy of children with ASD. Over the years, many deferent types of robots have been used for these purposes, e.g. creature/cartoon like robots, mobile robots, animal-like robots and humanoid robots. Although the robotic platforms vary in terms of their appearance and behavior, they have been shown to evoke pro-social behaviors in many children with ASD, help developing skills to assist in communication and social interaction. Several surveys show that the use of humanoid robots as intervention tools for children with autism have found that Social robots act as behaviour eliciting agents for imitation, eye-gaze, joint attention, turn-taking, self-initiation, tactile interaction, emotion recognition, vocalisation and language etc. all of which may promote sensory, motor, cognitive emotional and social development.
We also did a research on the parent’s needs and problems regarding their children with autism, experienced in daily life. Majority of the parents had concerns about the child’s development before the age 3, but received services much later. Majority of them had serious frustrations in finding those services, had financial difficulties in dealing with the child’s autism and had serious difficulties in dealing with the challenging behaviors.
We also interviewed professionals from the field about the use of assistive technology. Some of them had education and use assistive technology but very small number use robots. Apps are much common in use for the children with autism.
Project partners developed and improved a set of approximately 10 different Kaspar's play scenarios which were used in the interventions with the children with autism. Each play scenario or game, was associated to a particular aspect of the intervention, targeting and supporting the development of children's abilities through interactions with the robot Kaspar. The play scenarios were developed in collaboration with psychologists, clinicians, educators and IT, all developed against relevant educational and therapeutic objectives in five key developmental areas (i.e. sensory development, communication and interaction, cognitive development, motor development and social and emotional development) and been exported to the App for mobile device.
This intervention achieved certain positive shifts in eight of eleven measured developmental domains, such as Communication functions and means, Turn taking, Imitation, Language skills, Play, Attention and Daily life skills. The three categories that had inconsiderable improvement are Vocalization and speech, Cause and effect and Coping skills. Based on the measurements before and after the use of Kaspar and complementary app, there is an improvement primarily in the domains of language, imitation and communication skills and attention.
The App that we have developed was easy to use for the parents and the children, had clear settings, children enjoyed in using it, met their needs, has fun and playful elements and they will recommend the app to their friends.
Furthermore, we interviewed the professionals who used Kaspar and app in this project. They think that the use of Kaspar in the therapy sessions meets the needs of the children. They also find that using Kaspar is easy to learn to handle with. Finally, the therapists would recommend the use of Kaspar to their colleagues (mode=4). Regarding the app design, participants rated the feature with high values and they rate it as useful.
For more information you can visit our web site www.smartporject.mk, our fb page https://www.facebook.com/smartprojectweb, and linkedin profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/project-smart.
Application is visible at https://smart.finki.ukim.mk/ and video of the sessions in which Kaspar and app were used are visible at following links https://vimeo.com/576731743 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XKOFMs4j9I
Project results can be found at this link https://smartproject.mk/results/
If you need further information, you can contact our Project leader Prof. Tatjana Zorcec at tzorcec@gmail.com