Social engagement of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in imitating a humanoid robot: a case study

Our study aims to compare the social engagement behaviors of the children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in interaction with a kid-size humanoid robot and a human partner in a motor imitation task on two children with ASD with high functioning. The evaluation measures (e.g., eye gaze direction, gaze shifting, completeness/correctness of the movements, initiation with/without prompt, verbal instruction, and time differences between starting/finishing the robot’s movement and the child’s movement) are extracted from the recorded videos of the trial sessions and analyzed to assess the engagement of the children in interaction with the robot or a human partner. The results indicate that the eye gaze duration to the robot, the frequency of the initiation without prompt, and the frequency of the complete and correct movements for Child 1 in the robot condition are higher compared to the human condition, while these criteria for Child 2 in the robot condition are slightly less compared to the human condition. Also, the frequency of the gaze shifting for Child 1 in the robot condition is lower compared to the human condition, while for Child 2, it is slightly higher compared to the human condition. Moreover, both children show desirable results in the case of the frequency of the required verbal instructions, and finished the movements before the robot and started after the robot most time. Finally, the study can suggest child–robot interaction to improve the social engagement of some children with ASD.