Designing and observing human-robot interactions for the study of social development and its disorders

This paper describes the design principle of our robot, Keepon, and reports the longitudinal observation of the interactions between the robot and children with developmental disorders. The robot, Keepon, is a small (12cm tall), simple (like a yellow snowman), soft (made of silicone rubber), creature-like robot, which was designed for studies on human social development and possible remedies for developmental disorders. We observed how children with developmental disorders interacted with the robot in an unconstrained playroom for more than a year (over 500 child-sessions). From these observations, we found that the children changed their ontological understanding of the robot, and consequently their way of interaction, as the interaction unfolded. We conclude that the robot's rather predictable responses gave the children a relaxed mood for spontaneous play, from which social communication with the robot and with another person would naturally emerge.