Carlos Valadão

Educational robotics as a learning aid for disabled children

Severe disabled children have little chance of environmental and social exploration and discovery, and due this lack of interaction and independency, it may lead to an idea that they are unable to do anything by themselves. This idea is called “learned helplessness” and is very negative for the child cognitive development and social development as well. With this entire situation it is very likely that the self-steam and mood of this child. Trying to help these children on this situation, educational robotics can offer and aid, once it can give them a certain degree of independency in exploration of environment. The system developed in this work allows the child to transmit the commands to a robot. Sensors placed on the childs body can obtain information from head movement or muscle pulses to command the robot to carry the tasks. Also, this system can be used with a variety of robots, being necessary just a previous configuration. It is expected that, with the usage of this system, the disabled children have a better cognitive development and social interaction, balancing in a certain way, the negative effects of their disabilities.

A New Controller for a Smart Walker Based on Human-Robot Formation

This paper presents the development of a smart walker that uses a formation controller in its displacements. Encoders, a laser range finder and ultrasound are the sensors used in the walker. The control actions are based on the user (human) location, who is the actual formation leader. There is neither a sensor attached to the user’s body nor force sensors attached to the arm supports of the walker, and thus, the control algorithm projects the measurements taken from the laser sensor into the user reference and, then, calculates the linear and angular walker’s velocity to keep the formation (distance and angle) in relation to the user. An algorithm was developed to detect the user’s legs, whose distances from the laser sensor provide the information necessary to the controller. The controller was theoretically analyzed regarding its stability, simulated and validated with real users, showing accurate performance in all experiments. In addition, safety rules are used to check both the user and the device conditions, in order to guarantee that the user will not have any risks when using the smart walker. The applicability of this device is for helping people with lower limb mobility impairments.

Mobile robotics: A tool for interaction with children with autism

This paper presents an implementation with mobile robot to generate actions to interact with children with autism. The robot is able to detect the child localization and approach him/her, keeping a safe proximity minimum (interaction distance). The mobile robot is equipped with laser sensor to obtain distances and an embedded control system for the interaction. The implementation allows two modes of interaction, depending on the degree of interaction with the child. The system here developed can help children with autism in the process of social evolution and be a tool for professionals and researchers of the area.

Analysis of the use of a robot to improve social skills in children with autism spectrum disorder

Introduction Autism Spectrum Disorder is a set of developmental disorders that imply in poor social skills, lack of interest in activities and interaction with people. Treatments rely on teaching social skills and in such therapies robotics may offer aid. This work is a pilot study, which aims to show the development and usage of a ludic mobile robot for stimulating social skills in ASD children. Methods A mobile robot with a special costume and a monitor to display multimedia contents was designed to interact with ASD children. A mediator controls the robot’s movements in a room prepared for interactive sessions. Sessions are recorded to assess the following social skills: eye gazing, touching the robot and imitating the mediator. The interaction is evaluated using the Goal Attainment Scale and Likert scale. Ten children were evaluated (50% with ASD), using as inclusion criteria children with age 7-8, without use of medication, and without tendency to aggression or stereotyped movements. Results It was observed that the ASD group touched the robot about twice more in average than the control group (CG). They also looked away and imitated the mediator in a quite similar way as the CG, and showed extra social skills (verbal and non-verbal communication). These results are considered an advance in terms of improvement of social skills in ASD children. Conclusions Our studies indicate that the robot stimulated social skills in 4/5 of the ASD children, which shows that its concepts are useful to improve socialization and quality of life.

Robotic walkers from a clinical point of view: Feature-based classification and proposal of the UFES Walker

This paper presents a critical review of the state of the art of robotic walkers, emphasizing on the clinical applicability of the main features reported in such systems. A feature-based classification is proposed along with the presentation of the possible clinical scenarios, highlighting the potential of these devices for modern physical therapy practice. Based on the classification, the development of a novel robotic walker - the UFES Walker - is proposed with the most relevant features for controlled rehabilitation programs and, at the same time, suitable for functional compensation and domiciliary use.

Use of myoelectric signals to command mobile entertainment robot by disabled children: Design and control architecture

Severely disabled children have little chance of environmental and social exploration and discovery. This lack of interaction and independency may lead to an idea that they are unable to do anything by themselves. In an attempt to help children in this situation, educational robotics can offer and aid, once it can provide them a certain degree of independency in the exploration of environment. The system developed in this work allows the child to transmit the commands to a robot through myoelectric and movement sensors. The sensors are placed on the childs body so they can obtain information from the body inclination and muscle contraction, thus allowing commanding, through a wireless communication, the mobile entertainment robot to carry out tasks such as play with objects and draw. In this paper, the details of the robot design and control architecture are presented and discussed. With this system, disabled children get a better cognitive development and social interaction, balancing in a certain way, the negative effects of their disabilities.

Adaptation of a smart walker for stroke individuals: a study on sEMG and accelerometer signals

Introduction: Stroke is a leading cause of neuromuscular system damages, and researchers have been studying and developing robotic devices to assist affected people. Depending on the damage extension, the gait of these people can be impaired, making devices, such as smart walkers, useful for rehabilitation. The goal of this work is to analyze changes in muscle patterns on the paretic limb during free and walker-assisted gaits in stroke individuals, through accelerometry and surface electromyography (sEMG). Methods: The analyzed muscles were vastus medialis, biceps femoris, tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius medialis. The volunteers walked three times on a straight path in free gait and, further, three times again, but now using the smart walker, to help them with the movements. Then, the data from gait pattern and muscle signals collected by sEMG and accelerometers were analyzed and statistical analyses were applied. Results: The accelerometry allowed gait phase identification (stance and swing), and sEMG provided information about muscle pattern variations, which were detected in vastus medialis (onset and offset; p = 0.022) and biceps femoris (offset; p = 0.025). Additionally, comparisons between free and walker-assisted gaits showed significant reduction in speed (from 0.45 to 0.30 m/s; p = 0.021) and longer stance phase (from 54.75 to 60.34%; p = 0.008). Conclusions: Variations in muscle patterns were detected in vastus medialis and biceps femoris during the experiments, besides user speed reduction and longer stance phase when the walker-assisted gait is compared with the free gait.

EEG analysis and mobile robot as tools for emotion characterization in autism.

Background Autism or “Autism Spectrum Disorder” is characterized by manifestations of impairments in social behavior, stereotyped movements, difficulty in communication and interaction with people. This paper presents a system composed of a mobile robot to generate interactive tasks with autistic children, and an EEG (electroencephalography) equipment to get brain information to characterize their emotions.

Robot Toys for Children with Disabilities

Toys and games have an important role in the developmental context of children in terms of the cognitive, social, motor, psychological and sensory aspects. The use of toys has also demonstrated to be useful in medical and therapeutic applications, becoming a pleasant and motivating tool for supporting rehabilitation and several kinds of therapies of infant-juvenile patients. Smart toys, such as robots, and virtual reality games are being increasingly used as supporting tool for therapists, once they are able to aim the learning, attentional and focus control, as well as cognitive flexibility, perception and task switching, permeating a diversity of developmental disorders. This chapter approaches examples of robots designed to help children with motor and neurobehavioural disabilities. The main goal of these robots is to help children feel more independent and, specially, to help them in their therapies and in their social skills development. In addition to the robots themselves, this chapter also shows some experiments conducted with physically impaired and ASD children using qualitative to quantitative scales, which are used to quantify the quality of the experiments and the usability of the robots.