News: Robots Provide Therapy and Support

Bandit-II, Kaspar, and CosmoBot may not sound like the names of your child's playmates, but these robots, or socially assistive devices, are helping children with autism learn social interaction skills. Kaspar, first tested in Great Britain, showed that children with autism liked his machine-like face. "'We tested another robot that looked like a doll with eyelashes and color on its lips, and the children didn't like that one as much at first,' says Dautenhahn, who headed the team that created Kaspar." Another young child with autism learned imitation skills working with CosmoBot, "as it led her through a Simon-says game of raising her arms, patting her head and clapping."

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