2 nd international conference education for all warsaw september 22-25, 2009

Robots helping children with motor disabilities to reach their learning potential through play:

the IROMEC Project experience

2nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Education for All

WARSAW SEPTEMBER 22-25, 2009

Serenella Besio, Francesca Caprino, Elena Laudanna

University of Valle D’Aosta, Italy

Two projects



• IROMEC IROMEC (Interactive RObotic social MEdiators as Companions) is a three year project (2006-2009) co-funded by the European Community within the 6th

Framework Programme. (RIF. FP6-2005-IST-5 Specific targeted research project-IROMEC)

• ADAPTED ROBOTS PROJECT is an ongoing project of the University of Valle D’Aosta

The IROMEC research consortium



• Profactor GmbH, Wien (Austria)• Università of Valle d’Aosta (Italy) • University of Siena (Italy)• University of Hertfordshire (Great Britain)• AIT Austrian Instiute of Technology, Wien (Austria)• Robosoft, Bidart (France)• Vilans, Maastricht (The Netherlands)• AIJU Instituto Tecnológico del Juguete, Alicante (Spain)• Risoluta SLL, Cadiz (Spain)

The Adapted Robot Project



It is an ongoing project carried out by theResearch group on technologies for play of children with disabilities established at the University of Valle D’Aosta

The research group – directed by prof. Serenella Besio – is a multidisciplinary team including an engineer, a psychologist, a rehabilitation therapist and two Ph.D students

It is located at the Faculty of Education of the University of Valle d’Aosta

Aim of the two experimental studies



To promote play

in children with severe motor impairments

by overcoming environmental barriers

thus enhancing children’s learning potential and their social inclusion

Why play?



Play is the primary occupation in childhood

Play is a major driving force of child’s growth(Vygotskij, Piaget)

Play is related to all the main developmentalareas (cognitive, social, emotional, motor)

Play, education, rehabilitation - 1



Knowledge in the history of pedagogy (Pestalozzi, 1806, Fröbel, 1826; Claparède, 1905) underlines the importance of play for the education of the child considered as a whole, of body and mind

In the educational field play has been always applied both as a mean for learning and as an end in itself

Play, education, rehabilitation - 2



Play-based interventions are largely applied in the clinical context

as a medium to achieve a wide range of treatment objectives (e.g. improvement of fine and global motor skills, enhancement of language functions)

with children with disabilities, especially in the early years (Schaefer,1994)

Play, education, rehabilitation – 3



The observation of play behavior is a well-known methodology

largely applied both in the therapeutic and in the educational contexts

as an effective and ecologically sound approach to assess the child in a wide range of areas

The experience of play deprivation - 1



Children with some kind of disabilities may be prevented from fully developing their play skills, due both to individual and to environmental factors

The play deprivation negatively affects the child’s development and can result also in secondary disabilities

Why ICF-CYas a framework for play and disability

• It offers a bio-psychosocial framework

• It adopts a language that is common to multiple disciplines

• It directly addresses issues related to child development such as play stages and functions

• It examines many aspects related to technology as an important mean for individuals’ activity and participation

The importance of Play



• NEUROMUSCULOSKELETAL• VOICE AND SPEECH• PSYCHOMOTOR • (…)

SOCIAL PLAY OBJECT PLAY

PRODUCTS ANDTECHNOLOGIES FOR PLAY

INCLUSION IN PLAY

Play of children with motor disabilities according to the ICF model

Individual Factors and Play BODY FUNCTIONS



Individual factors negatively affecting play in children with motor impairments:

• Impairments in neuromusculoskeletal functions

• Impairments in voice and speech functions

• Impairments in psychomotor functions

• (….)

Individual factors and PlayACTIVITY AND PARTICIPATION



Individual factors negatively affecting play in children with motor impairments

• Limitations in mobility

• Limitations in communication

• Limitations in basic learning

• (….)

Environmental factors and play -1



•They can be barriers or facilitators!

•Products and Technology for play

•Products and Technology for communication

•Products and technology for mobility

•Products and technology for education

•(…)

Environmental factors and play - 2



•They can be barriers or facilitators!

• Support and relationships

• Attitudes

• Services and policies

(…)

The Aosta team proposal – 1



Provide the right technologies for play to children with motor impairment thus enabling them to reach their learning and social potential

Robotics, thanks to its high degree of interactivity may help children with motorImpairment to play independently, by interaction with the physical environment

The Aosta team proposal – 2



Two different approaches can be chosen:

• Design of novel robotic technologies for play

(IROMEC project)

• Adaptation of existing robotic technologies for play

(Adapted Robots Project)

Technologies applied



• IROMEC ROBOT: a novel robotic toy specifically designed to meet the special play needs of childrenwith severe disabilities

• Adapted robots: off the shelf toy adaptedthrough accessible user interfaces

The IROMEC robot - 1



The IROMEC robot consists of:

• a mobile platform

• a configurable interaction module which covers the platform and can be easily plugged and unplugged

• a set of control buttons, allowing user with physical impairments to tele operate the robot by direct selection or through other input devices (external switches)

The IROMEC robot - 2



Adapted Robots



Three different toy robots having a playful and enjoyable

toy appearance and promoting in children active

engagement and curiosity

They are:• available on the market

• playable with the pre-selected scenarios• robust and safe • remote controlled via IR

Adapted robots: Mr Personality



It is a wheeled mobile robot

It can display on its colour LCD display different personalities

Facial expressions are combined with arms’,head’s and trunk’s movements

Mr Personality can move around avoiding obstacles

Robot features also includesound, music and pre-recorded messages

Adapted robots: Mr Personality



In order to make accessible the system, the toy’sremote control has been adapted in order to be controlledvia an AT device

Further adaptations (to be done)

• Modification to visual feedback (faces)

• Modification to auditive feedbaks (pre-recorded messages)

Adapted robots: i-SOBOT – 1



It is a small humanoid toy robot, with a strong focus on expressiveness

It can perform a wide range of movements

The remote control allows usersto create scripts, combining togetherseveral movements and then activating the script by pressing a single button

It is also equipped with a gyroscopic sensor and a voice recognition system

Adapted robots: I-Sobot – 2



It has been re-programmed in order to make its functionalities accessible by single switch users

Thanks to this adaptation an imitation game has been proposed to a group of motor impaired children playing with their peers

Adapted robots: Wall-E – 1



It is an appealing movie character withpre stored vocal messages and sounds

By mean of an IR remote control it is possible to create more than 1000 different combinations of movement sequences

It has 4 sensor for movement detectionand 4 sensors for sound recognition

Adapted robots: Wall-E – 2



Thanks to its obstacle avoidance functions the Wall-E robot has been tested in a “Turn Taking” play scenario

The movement sequences have been programmed and the sequences codes havebeen learned by an universal remote control

Adapted robots: work done



• Adaptation of toy robots

• Playability and Usability tests

• Play Scenarios selection

Adapted Robots: future work



• Development of new play scenarios

• Adaptation of other toy robots

• Assessment of educative and therapeutic outcomes of robot assisted play interventions

IROMEC: work done – 1



• Analysis of Critical Factors involved in using interactive robots for education and therapy of children with disabilities

• Development of play scenarios

• Design of a prototype robot

IROMEC: work done – 2



•Preliminary tests to evaluate, accessibility, safety and playability of the IROMEC robot

•Development of a methodological framework to set up educational and therapy sessions with the IROMEC robot

• Experimental trials for the assessment of educational and therapeutic outcomes of robot assisted play sessions

IROMEC: future work



• Assessment of the educative and therapeutic outcomes of the play sessions with the IROMEC prototype

• Development of guidelines, mainly addressed to teachers and therapists, to set up robot assisted play sessionswith children with disabilities

• Validation of a specific software (MACRO-Play) developed to match the play needs of children with disabilities with play scenarios and the available robotic technologies

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!



2 nd international conference education for all warsaw september 22-25, 2009

Documents

faculty of education

play of children

importance of play

robots project

ongoing project

iromec project experience

social inclusionwhy

year project