Children with autism can trust their new dog-robot friend

by Angelica Basile - 2016.09.22

A robot that can become the best friend of a child with autism. This is the project launched by Spanish company, Aisoy Robotics, that has just presented Aisoy 1V5 in collaboration with researchers from University Miguel Hernàndez in Spain. An artificial intelligence that has two primary tasks. The first is to help the child with autism distinguish emotions and behaviors by suggesting them first, and then allowing the child to interiorize them. The second is to suggest games that can be played together (robot and child). All of this represents an entirely new frontier and makes this experiment stand out from the others. The designers of Aisoy 1V5 conceived of the robot as a way to create a truly close relationship with the child, in order to improve the child's cognitive skills and socialization. And, by doing so, the robot becomes a type of "trusted intermediary" between patient and therapist, whose work cannot and should not be substituted. A point which the researchers take care to emphasize.