Grantee Type:

Fellow

Home Institution:

The George Washington University

Host Country, Institution:

Germany, The Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, Germany

Year:

2017

Project Title:

A robotic assistant for the care facilitation of children with autism during hospital visits

Project Abstract:

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulty with emotional interaction skills, can be nonverbal, and may experience sensory overload. Due to frequent comorbid conditions, they make more visits to the hospital than neurotypical children. There is a need to improve the healthcare-provider interaction and overall environment that children with ASD experience during hospital visits. I hypothesize that a socially assistive robot can aid in this process, by acting as the child???s companion during visit downtime, and as an advocate during the actual appointment. The robot is remotely controlled by an operator, and acts a social agent by relaying individualized care plan information.