Touch and tell

The University of Hertfordshire has begun work on a robot to help autistic children to communicate.

Marking a new approach, the ‘Roboskin’ project aims to produce a ‘tactile’ robot with skin.

The unit, which is life-sized and goes by the name of Kaspar, has been developed by the university’s Adaptive Systems research group with the aim of providing tactile feedback to playful interaction. It is hoped, the researchers say, that this will help autistic children gauge when a action from them is inappropriate, for example too aggressive.

Commenting on the project, the university’s Professor Kerstin Dautenhahn said: “Children with autism have problems with touch, often with either touching or being touched. The idea is to put skin on the robot as touch is a very important part of social development and communication and the tactile sensors will allow the robot to detect different types of touch and it can then encourage or discourage different approaches.”

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