A Humanoid Robot to Assess the Affective Imitative Expression Abilities of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication, repetitive behaviors and restricted interests. Assessments and interventions targeting affective expression are crucial for supporting the development of children with ASD. However, existing approaches face challenges related to complex interventions, lack of unified metrics, and inadequate immersion and guidance in providing effective affective assessment. In this paper, an innovative humanoid robot is designed and evaluated to address specific challenges and assess the ability of children with ASD in affective imitative expression. The robot, with its meticulously designed mechanical and hardware structure, incorporates an assessment protocol for affective imitative expression and algorithms for assessing affective expression abilities. It utilizes several specially designed assessment metrics to generate a uniquely tailored assessment scale for affective imitative expression. A preliminary experiment involving ten neurotypical adults has been conducted to validate the feasibility and accuracy of the proposed system. The results demonstrate potential in supporting rehabilitation planning and research for ASD assessments.