Research and development

Research independent of University of Hertfordshire, involving 54 multidisciplinary autism spectrum disorder (ASD) practitioners, found professionals are convinced that Kaspar can be useful in interventions for a broad range of therapy and education goals for children with ASD.

Findings published in the International Journal of Social Robotics indicate that professionals expect Kaspar to be of added value for goals relating to communication, interpersonal skills, play, emotional wellbeing and development of preschool skills.

Read the full paper: Contribution of Kaspar to therapy and educational goals for children with autism

For this study published in the International Journal of Social Robotics, children with autism interacted with Kaspar in a tactile way while he was equipped with touch sensors in order to be able to distinguish gentle from harsh touch, and to respond accordingly.

Data obtained from video analysis showed that children treated Kaspar as an object of shared attention with the experimenter, and performed more gentle touches on the robot as the sessions progressed. The children also learned to identify body parts.

The University of Hertfordshire study demonstrated the potential to teach children with autism about body parts and appropriate physical interaction using a humanoid robot.

Read the full paper: Using Kaspar to teach children with autism about physical interaction

This University of Hertfordshire study published in IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development presented a novel design, implementation, and first evaluation of a collaborative game involving Kaspar playing games with pairs of children with autism.

Children with autism have impaired social communication and social interaction skills, which make it difficult for them to participate in many different forms of social and collaborative play.

In the study Kaspar operated fully autonomously, using information on the state of the game and behaviour of the children to engage, motivate, encourage and advise pairs of children playing an imitation game.

Through 78 separate play sessions, detailed observational analyses of the children's behaviours indicated that different pairs of children with autism showed improved social behaviours in playing with each other after they played as pairs with the robot Kaspar compared to before they did so.

Read the full paper: Using Kaspar to facilitate collaborative play among children with autism