My qualifications and many years of work experience lie in two disciplines: Computer Science (since 1980) and Dance Movement Therapy (since 1992). I have completed my PhD research degree in the school of Computer Science at the University of Hertfordshire, bringing together my expertise and experience in these two disciplines.
My research, which started in 2002 in the Aurora Project, investigates the potential use of robots as therapeutic or educational 'toys' specifically for use by children with autism. The research focuses on ways that robotic systems can engage autistic children in simple interactive activities, with the aim of encouraging basic communication and social interaction skills.
Over the years, I was the team leader of the UH’s research team participated in the European FP6, FP7 & Horizon2020 projects IROMEC, ROBOSKIN and BabyRobot. The IROMEC project acknowledged the important role of play in child development and has investigated how robotic toys can empower children with cognitive, developmental, or physical impairments to discover the range of play styles from solitary to social and cooperative play.
In the ROBOSKIN project, using our humanoid robot Kaspar, the team has helped to develop cognitive mechanisms that use tactile feedback to improve human-robot interaction capabilities particularly in the application domain of robot assisted play for children with autism
The BabyRobot project focused on child-robot communication and collaboration, and developed the required technologies in order to develop specific socio-affective, communication and collaboration skills. Implementing these technologies on Kaspar, the team further developed Child-Robot Interaction Scenarios and run longitudinal studies specifically to assist children with autism in developing Visual Perspective Taking skills.
My recent work, part of the Erasmus+ projects SMART and EMBOA, and the KASPAR project, further investigated robot-assisted therapy for children with autism with the humanoid robot Kaspar. The SMART project has developed and used intervention protocol where there is a synergy between a humanoid robot and a personal mobile device as a novel intervention tool for children with Autism. The project EMBOA- ‘Affective loop in Socially Assistive Robotics as an intervention for Children with Autism’, implemented and evaluated the feasibility of applying emotion recognition technologies in robot-supported intervention for children with autism. Within the KASPAR project, we have continued the investigation of robot assisted therapy in two main studies – ‘Kaspar Explain’ (KE) and Kaspar for Speech and Language therapy (SLC).
Kaspar Explain project - studied whether explicit causal explanations by the robot in robot assisted intervention can improve the Visual Perspective Taking (VPT ) skills of children with autism. Results identified multiple interaction categories where causal explanation by the robot contributed substantially to the children’s understanding of VPT.
The SLC study - Coupling the Kaspar research team’s experience with the expertise of speech and language communication specialists, we have conducted a thorough feasibility study examining how Kaspar can be used to support and provide SLC therapies to children with learning difficulties.
The news article, released by Reuters can be seen here. The video can be seen here.
· Human Robot Interaction (HRI) with specific interest in the application of robotic systems in rehabilitation, therapy and education
· Autism therapy
· Dance Movement Therapy
1980 - Diploma ('HND' equivalent ) in Computing, Practical Engineering College, Negev University
1990 - BA Combined Studies, Majoring in Dance, Middlesex University
1992 - Post Graduate Diploma Dance Movement Therapy - St. Albans College of Art & Design
1998 - MSc Computer Science - University of Hertfordshire
2005 - PhD research degree in Computer Science - University of Hertfordshire, Title: 'A humanoid Robot as assistive technology for Encouraging Social Interaction Skills in children with autism
- 1981-1984: Manof Systems, Software Developer and International Customer Support Analyst of message switching systems, Tel-Aviv.
- 1984-1986: Communication Support Analyst - Societe Generale Bank, London
- 1986-1988: Senior Systems Analyst - Bank of America, London
- 1988 -1996 Estate Manager - Eminent Production, Essex
- 1997-1998: MSc Degree Course Computer Science. As the final year project I developed a prototype flight simulator for pilots to train in instrument flying procedures.
- 1998 - 2002: Logica - IT Consultant - various international projects.
- October 2002 - Sept. 2005: PhD Research - School of Computer Science- University of Hertfordshire
- Sept 2005 - Dec 2006 : Associate Lecturer / Research Fellow - University of Hertfordshire
- 2007 to-date: Senior Research Fellow - University of Hertfordshire
Dance Therapy and Dance in the Community activities (on part-time basis)
- 1985 - 1986: Teaching Electrobics courses and workshops at Pineapple Studios , as well as in community centres in north and south London.
- 1990 - Creative dance community workshop for people with learning difficulties - Cambridge
- 1991 - 1993: Dance Therapy and Creative Dance movement sessions for people with mental handicap - Orford House, Essex
- 1988 - 1994: Teaching and leading creative dance workshops- Eminent Theatre (a theatre group)
- 1994 - 2002: Leading various dance classes and workshops with Emin Arts, a charity that promotes the education of the arts, and assisting with Touchdown Dance , a charity that promotes dance work with visually impaired people.
- 2002 - 2003: Dance movement therapy and creative dance workshop at SENSE - Barnet (a day centre for adults with severe physical, visual and mental disabilities.
Book Chapters:
- Robins, B., & Dautenhahn, K. (2019). "The social robot Kaspar interacts with children with Autism. Views from parents and teachers". In: Besio, S. & Caldin, R. (Eds.). La pedagogia speciale in dialogo con altre discipline. Intersezioni, ibridazioni e alfabeti possibili. Milano, Guerini & Associati, pp. 71-84. ISBN: 978-88-8107-433-4
- Paul and Dickerson and Ben Robins (2017). “Conversation Analysis with Children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder and Limited Verbal Ability” In M. O'Reilly, J.N. Lester, T. Muskett (Eds), A Practical Guide to Social Interaction Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2017
- Paul Dickerson and Ben Robins (2015). " Looking or Spotting ". in The Palgrave Handbook of Child Mental Health . (September 2015); p59–78. Palgrave Macmillan.
- Aude Billard, Annalisa Bonfiglio, Giorgio Cannata, Piero Cosseddu, Torbjørn S. Dahl, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Fulvio Mastrogiovanni, Giorgio Metta, Lorenzo Natale, Ben Robins, Lucia Seminara and Maurizio Valle, (2013) The ROBOSKIN Project: Challenges and Results. In Romansy-19 “ Robot Design, Dynamics and Control, CISM International Centre for Mechanical Sciences Volume 544, Vincent Padois, Philippe Bidaud, and Oussama Khatib (Eds.), pp351-358, Springer, 2013.
- Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Rene te Boekhorst, Aude Billard (2004) Effects of repeated exposure to a humanoid robot on children with autism. In S. Keates, J. Clarkson, P. Langdon and P. Robinson (Eds.) Designing a More Inclusive World, Springer Verlag, London, pp. 225-236. This paper won the best paper award at CWUAAT (Cambridge Workshop on Universal Access and Assistive Technology), Cambridge , UK , 22-24 March 2004.
Journal Articles:
- Landowska, A., Karpus, A., Zawadzka, T., Robins, B., Barkana, D. E., Kose, H., Zorcec, T. & Cummins, N.,(2022), Automatic Emotion Recognition in Children with Autism: A Systematic Literature Review. In: Sensors. 22 (4), pp. 1649
- Bartl-Pokorny, K. D., Uluer, P., Barkana, D. E., Baird, A., Kose, H., Zorcec, T., Robins, B., Schuller, B., Landowska, A., & Pykala, M.(2021). Robot-Based Intervention for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Literature Review. IEEE Access 2021 Vol.9, Pp. 165433-16545
- Dag Sverre Syrdal, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Ben Robins, Efstathia Karakosta, and Nan Cannon-Jones (2020), Kaspar in the wild: Experiences from deploying a small humanoid robot in a nursery school for children with autism. Paladyn, Journal of Behavioral Robotics 2020 Vol. 11 (1) P 301–326
- Wood, L., Dautenhahn, K., Rainer, A., Robins, B., Lehmann,
H., Syrdal, D. S. (2020), Robot-Mediated interviews: A
field trial with a potential real-world user. Interaction
Studies.Vol. 21:2 (2020) pp. 243–267
- Landowska A., Robins B. (2020) Robot Eye Perspective in
Perceiving Facial Expressions in Interaction with Children
with Autism. In: Barolli L., Amato F., Moscato F., Enokido T.,
Takizawa M. (eds) Web, Artificial Intelligence and Network
Applications. WAINA 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and
Computing, vol 1150. Springer, Cham March 2020
- Abolfazl Zaraki, Mehdi Khamassi,·Luke J. Wood, Gabriella Lakatos, Costas Tzafestas, Farshid Amirabdollahian, Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn (2019), A Novel Reinforcement-Based Paradigm for Children to Teach the Humanoid Kaspar Robot; International Journal of Social Robotics (IJSR) Nov. 2019.
- Karakosta, Efstathia & Dautenhahn, Kerstin & Syrdal, Dag Sverre & Wood, Luke & Robins, Ben. (2019). Using the humanoid robot Kaspar in a Greek school environment to support children with Autism Spectrum Condition. Paladyn, Journal of Behavioral Robotics. 10 (1): 298-317 Sep. 2019
- Luke J. Wood, Abolfazl Zaraki, Ben Robins, Kerstin
Dautenhahn1 (2019), Developing Kaspar: A Humanoid Robot for
Children with Autism. International Journal of Social
Robotics(IJSR) July 2019.
- Luke J Wood, Ben Robins, Gabriella
Lakatos, Dag Sverre Syrdal, Abolfazl Zaraki, Kerstin
Dautenhahn (2019), Developing a protocol and experimental
setup for using a humanoid robot to assist children with
autism to develop visual perspective taking skills. in
Paladyn 10(1):167-179 · March 2019 .
- Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn (2018), Kaspar the social robot and ways it may help children with Autism – an overview. ENFANCE, Jan-Mar 2018(1), pp 91-101, UNIVERSITAIRES DE FRANCE .
- Silvana Mengoni, Karen Irvine, Deepshikha Thakur, Garry
Barton, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Karen Guldberg, Ben Robins, David
Wellsted, and Shivani Sharma, (2017) ‘Feasibility study of a
randomised controlled trial to investigate the effectiveness
of using a humanoid robot to improve the social skills of
children with autism spectrum disorder (Kaspar RCT): a study
protocol’, BMJ Open, 2017 Vol. 7(6)
- Luke Wood, Hagen Lehmann, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Ben Robins, Austen Rainer, Dag Syrdal (2016) Robot-mediated interviews for children with autism: What do potential users think? Interacton Studies 17:3: 439-461
- Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn (2014) Tactile Interactions with a Humanoid Robot - Novel Play Scenario Implementations with Children with Autism. International Journal of Social Robotics (IJSR), Vol. 6(3), pp. 397-415
- Joshua Wainer, Ben Robins, Farshid Amirabdollahian, Kerstin Dautenhahn (2014) Using the humanoid robot KASPAR to autonomously play triadic games and facilitate collaborative play among children with autism. IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development (TAMD), Vol. 6(3) pp. 183-199
- Sandra Costa, Hagen Lehmann, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Ben Robins, Filomena Soares (2014) Using a humanoid robot to elicit body awareness and appropriate physical interaction in children with autism . International Journal of Social Robotics Publisher: Springer.
- Leighter, S., Wainer, J., Wood, N., Dautenhahn, K. & Robins, B. (2014) The Robot Club: Robots as agents to improve the social skills of young people on the autistic spectrum. In : Autism . 37
- Joshua Wainer, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Ben Robins, Farshid Amirabdollahian (2013) A pilot study with a novel setup for collaborative play of the humanoid robot KASPAR with children with autism. International Journal of Social Robotics (IJSR), Vol. 6 (1), pp. 45-65.
- Luke Wood, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Austen Rainer, Ben Robins, Hagen Lehmann, Dag S. Syrdal (2013) Robot-Mediated Interviews - How effective is a humanoid robot as a tool for interviewing young children?. PLoS ONE, 8(3)
- Paul Dickerson, Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn (2013) Where the action is: A conversation analytic perspective on interaction between a humanoid robot, a co-present adult and a child with an ASD. Interaction Studies 14(2), pp. 297-316.
- Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Ester Ferrari, Gernot Kronreif, Barbara Prazak-Aram, Patrizia Marti, Iolanda Iacono, Gert Jan Gelderblom, Tanja Bernd, Francesca Caprino and Elena Laudanna (2012), Scenarios of robot-assisted play for children with cognitive and physical disabilities. Interaction Studies 13(2), pp.189-23
- Ben Robins, Ester Ferrari, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Gernot Kronrief, Barbara Prazak, Gert-Jan Gerderblom, Francesca Caprino, Elena Laudanna (2010) Human-centred Design Methods: Developing Scenarios for Robot Assisted Play Informed by User Panels and Field Trials. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies IJHCS, 2010. 68(12), 873-898
- Kerstin Dautenhahn, Chrystopher L. Nehaniv, Michael L. Walters, Ben Robins, Hatice Kose-Bagci, N. Assif Mirza, Michael Blow (2009) KASPAR - A Minimally Expressive Humanoid Robot for Human-Robot Interaction Research. to appear in Special Issue on "Humanoid Robots" for Applied Bionics and Biomechanics, published by Taylor and Francis.
- Joshua Wainer, Ester Ferrari, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Ben Robins (2009 ) The effectiveness of using a robotics class to foster collaboration among groups of children with autism in an exploratory study. Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, Special issue on "Design for Social Interaction through Physical Play"
- Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn (2007) Encouraging social interaction skills in children with autism playing with robots: A case study evaluation of triadic interactions involving children with autism, other people (peers and adults) and a robotic toy. ENFANCE, Vol 59(1) Jan-Mar 2007, pp 72-81, UNIVERSITAIRES DE FRANCE
- A. Billard, B. Robins, K. Dautenhahn, J. Nadel (2006) Building Robota, a Mini-Humanoid Robot for the Rehabilitation of Children with Autism . RESNA Assistive Technology Journal.
- Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Janek Dubowsky (2006), Does appearance matter in the interaction of children with autism with a humanoid robot? Interaction Studies 7:3, pp. 479-512
- Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Rene te Boekhorst. and Aude Billard (2005), Robotic assistants in therapy and education of children with autism: Can a small humanoid robot help encourage social interaction skills? Universal Access in the Information Society (UAIS), Vol 4(2) Special Edition, Springer- Verlag,
- Ben Robins, Paul Dickerson, Penny Stribling and Kerstin Dautenhahn (2004) Robot-mediated joint attention in children with autism: A case study in robot-human interaction, Interaction Studies 5:2, pp. 161-198
Conference Proceedings:
- Araujo, H., Holthaus, P., Sarda Gou, M., Lakatos, G., Galizia, G., Wood, L., Robins, B., Mousavi, M. & Amirabdollahian, F. (2023) Kaspar Causally Explains: Causal Explanation in an Assistive Robot for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Social Robotics: 14th International Conference, ICSR 2022. Springer-Verlag, (Berlin-Heidelberg), Feb 2023 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science).
- Sarda Gou, M., Lakatos, G., Holthaus, P., Wood, L., Mousavi, M., Robins, B. & Amirabdollahian, F. (2022) Towards understanding causality – a retrospective study of scenarios that trigger explanations in interactions between a humanoid robot and autistic children. Proc.31th IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2022), Naples, Italy
- S.N.B. Aktas, P. Uluer, B. Coskun, E. Toprak; D. Erol Barkana; H. Kös, T. Zorcec, B.Robins and A. Landowska; (2022) "Stress Detection of Children With ASD Using Physiological Signals", proc.The 30th IEEE conference on Signal Processing and Communications Applications Conference (SIU), 2022, Safranbolu, Turkey
- Agnieszka Landowska, Ben Robins, (2020), Robot Eye Perspective in Perceiving Facial Expressions in Interaction with Children with Autism, in Proc. 34th International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications, WAINA 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol. 1150 AISC, Springer, pp. 1287-1297.
- Lakatos, Gabriella & Wood, Luke & Zaraki, Abolfazl & Robins, Ben & Dautenhahn, Kerstin & Amirabdollahian, Farshid. (2019). Effects of Previous Exposure on Children’s Perception of a Humanoid Robot. In Proc. 11th International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR 2019), Madrid, Spain, November 2019, pp.14-23
- Irvine, K, Sharma, S, Wellsted, D, Mengoni, S, Robins, B
& Dautenhahn, K (2019), 'Study to investigate the
effectiveness of using a humanoid robot (Kaspar) to improve
the social skills of children with an Autism Spectrum
Disorder: a randomised controlled feasibility trial'. In Proc.
12th Autism-Europe international Congress, Nice, France , Sep.
2019
- Moros, Sílvia & Wood, Luke & Robins, Ben & Dautenhahn, Kerstin & Castro-González, Álvaro. (2019). Programming a Humanoid Robot with the Scratch Language. Proc. International Conference on Robotics in Education (RiE 19’), April 2019, Vienna, Austria
- Tatjana Zorcec, Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn (2018) .
Getting Engaged: Assisted Play with a Humanoid Robot Kaspar
for Children with Severe Autism. In Proc. 10th International
Conference ICT Innovations 2018, Ohrid, Macedonia, September
2018
- A. Zaraki, M.
Khamassi, L.J. Wood, G. Lakatos, C. Tzafestas, B. Robins, K.
Dautenhahn (2018) . A Novel Paradigm for Typically Developing
and Autistic Children as Teachers to the Kaspar Robot Learner.
In Proc. 3rd Workshop on Behavior Adaptation, Interaction and
Learning for Assistive Robotics in Conjunction with IEEE
Ro-Man2018,August 2018, Nanjing, China
- A. Zaraki, L.J.
Wood, B. Robins, K. Dautenhahn (2018). "Development of a
Semi-Autonomous Robotic System to Assist Children with Autism
in Developing Visual Perspective Taking Skills". In Proc. The
27th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human
Interactive Communication (Ro-Man2018).August 2018, Nanjing,
China.
- L.J. Wood, B. Robins, G. Lakatos, D.S.
Syrdal, A. Zaraki, K. Dautenhahn (2018), "Piloting Scenarios
for Children with Autism to Learn About Visual Perspective
Taking". In Proc. Annual Conference Towards Autonomous Robotic
Systems,(TAROS2018), July 18' Bristol, U.K.
- Ben Robins,
Kerstin Dautenhahn, Luke Wood, Abolfazl Zaraki (2017)
Developing Interaction Scenarios with a Humanoid Robot to
Encourage Visual Perspective Taking Skills in Children with
Autism – Preliminary Proof of Concept Tests, In Proc.
The 9th International Conference on Social Robotics,
(ICSR 20017) November 22nd to 24th 2017, Tsukuba, Japan.
- Luke Wood, Abolfazl Zaraki, Michael Walters, Ori Novanda, Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn (2017) The Iterative Development of the Humanoid Robot Kaspar: An Assistive Robot for Children with Autism. In Proc. The 9th International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR 2017) November 22nd to 24th, 2017, Tsukuba, Japan.
- Luke Wood,
Kerstin Dautenhahn, Ben Robins, Abolfazl Zaraki (2017)
Developing Child-Robot Interaction Scenarios with a Humanoid
Robot to Assist Children with Autism in Developing Visual
Perspective Taking Skills. 26th IEEE International Symposium
on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (IEEE RO-MAN
2017), Lisbon, 28 August - 1 September 2017
- A. Zaraki, K. Dautenhahn, L. Wood, O. Novanda, and B. Robins (2017) Toward autonomous child-robot interaction: Development of an interactive architecture for the humanoid Kaspar robot, in Proceedings 3rd Workshop on Child-Robot Interaction at HRI 2017, vol. 3. https://childrobotinteraction.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/abolfazlzaraki.pdf, 2017, pp. 1–4.
- A. Zaraki, L. Wood, and K. Dautenhahn (2017) Design, implementation and experimental evaluation of an Iristk-based deliberative-reactive control architecture for semi-autonomous child-robot interaction in the real-world settings, in The UK-RAS Network Conference on Robotics and Autonomous Systems: Robots Working for and Among Us, vol. 1, 2017, pp. 1–3.
- L. J. Wood, B. Robins, K. Dautenhahn, G. Lakatos, D. Syrdal, and A. Zaraki (2017) Utilising humanoid robots to assist children with autism learn about visual perspective taking, in The UK-RAS Network Conference on Robotics and Autonomous Systems: Robots Working for and Among Us, vol. 1, 2017, pp. 1–3.
· Marcus M. Scheunemann, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Maha Salem, Ben Robins (2016) Utilizing Bluetooth Low Energy to Recognize Proximity, Touch and Humans. In 2016 25th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN) (pp. 362--367).
- Luke Wood, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Hagen Lehmann, Ben Robins, Austen Rainer, Dag Sverre Syrdal (2013) Robot-Mediated Interviews: Does a robotic interviewer impact question difficulty and information recovery? 12th European AAATE (Associated for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe) Conference, Algarve, Portugal, 19-22 September 2013 .
- Ben Robins, Farshid Amirabdollahian, Kerstin Dautenhahn, (2013) Investigating Child-Robot Tactile Interactions:A taxonomical classification of tactile behaviour of children with autism towards a humanoid robot , International Conferences on Advances in Computer-Human Interactions, ACHI 13, February 2013, Nice, France .
- Sandra Costa, Hagen Lehmann, Ben Robins, Kerstin Dauntenhahn, Filomena Soares (2013) ”Where is your nose?” - Developing body awareness skills among Children with Autism using a humanoid robot, Proc. ACHI 2013, The Sixth International conference on Advances in Computer-Human Interactions, February 2013, Nice, France. (This paper won the best paper award).
- Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Paul Dickerson, (2012) Embodiment and Cognitive Learning – Can a Humanoid Robot Help Children with Autism to Learn about Tactile Social Behaviour?, ICSR12 - International Conference on Social Robotics, October 2012, Chengdu, China
- Farshid Amirabdollahian, Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Ze Ji (2011) Investigating tactile event recognition in child-robot interaction for use in autism therapy. 10th 33rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC'11), Boston, MA, USA on August 30 - September 3, 2011.
- Iolanda Iacono, Hagen Lehmann, Patrizia Marti, Ben Robins and Kerstin Dautenhahn (2011) Robots as social mediators for children with autism - A preliminary analysis comparing two different robotic platforms. IEEE ICDL - EPIROB 2011, first Joint IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning and on Epigenetic Robotics. 24-27th August, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- Hagen Lehmann, Iolanda Iacono, Ben Robins, Patrizia Marti, Kerstin Dautenhahn (2011) 'Make it move': Playing cause and effect games with a robot companion for children with cognitive disabilities. 10th ECCE 2011 - European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics Designing Collaborative Activities August 24th - 26th, 2011, Rostock, Germany.
- Joshua Wainer, Kerstin Dautenhahn ,Ben Robins and Farshid Amirabdollahian (2010) Collaborating with Kaspar: Using an Autonomous Humanoid Robot to Foster Cooperative Dyadic Play among Children with Autism. 10th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids 10) December 2010, Nashville, TN
- Ben Robins and Kerstin
Dautenhahn ( 2010) Developing Play Scenarios for
Tactile Interaction with a Humanoid Robot: A Case Study
Exploration with Children with Autism, 2nd
International Conference on Social Robotics, November 2010,
Singapore.
- Ben Robins, Farshid Amirabdollahian, Ze Ji, Kerstin Dautenhahn ( 2010) Tactile interaction with a humanoid robot for children with autism: A case study analysis involving user requirements and results of an initial implementation. 19th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 10) September 2010, Viareggio, Italy.
- Ester Ferrari, Ben Robins and Kerstin Dautenhahn (2010) “Does it work?” A framework to evaluate the effectiveness of a robotic toy for children with special needs. 19th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 10) September 2010, Viareggio, Italy.
- Farshid Amirabdollahian, Ben Robins,
and Kerstin Dautenhahn, (2009) Robotic Skin Requirements
Based on Case Studies on Interacting with Children with
Autism, in “Tactile Sensing” workshop at IEEE
International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids
09) December 2009, Paris, France.
· Ester Ferari, Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn (2009) Therapeutic and educational objectives in Robot Assisted Play for children with autism. 18th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 09) September 2009, Toyama, Japan
· Ester Ferari, Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn (2009) Robot as a Social Mediator - a Play Scenario Implementation with Children with Autism. 8th international Conference on Interaction Design and Children, IDC09 -Workshop on Creative Interactive Play for Disabled Children , Como, Italy, June 3-5 2009
·
Ben Robins, Kerstin
Dautenhahn, Paul Dickerson, (2009) From Isolation to
Communication: A Case Study Evaluation of Robot Assisted
Play for Children with Autism with a Minimally Expressive
Humanoid Robot, Proc. the Second International
Conferences on Advances in Computer-Human Interactions, ACHI 09,
February 1-7, 2009 - Cancun, Mexico
· Josh Wainer, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Ben Robins (2008) Using robots to foster collaboration among groups of children with autism in an after-school class setting: An exploratory study. Proc. of 1st Workshop on Design for Social Interaction through Physical Play at the 2nd International conference on Fun and Games, 22-24f October 2008, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
· Ben Robins, Ester Ferrari, Kerstin Dautenhahn (2008) Developing Scenarios for Robot Assisted Play. Proc. the 17th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, (RO-MAN 2008), 1-3 August 2008, Munich , Germany.
· B. Robins, K. Dautenhahn, R. te Boekhorst, C. L. Nehaniv (2008) Behaviour Delay and Robot Expressiveness in Child-Robot Interactions: A User Study on Interaction Kinesics. Proc. ACM/IEEE 3rd International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2008). 12-15 March 2008, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
· Serenella Besio, Silvia Dini,Ester Ferrari, Ben Robins (2007) Critical Factors Involved in Using Interactive Robots for Play Activities of Children with Disabilities Proc. The 9th European Conference for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe (AAATE 2007) , 3-5 October, San-Sebastian, Spain.
· Ben Robins, Nuno Otero, Ester Ferrari, Kerstin Dautenhahn (2007) Eliciting Requirements for a Robotic Toy for Children with Autism - Results from User Panels. Proc. the 16th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, (RO-MAN 2007), 26-29 August 2007, Jeju island, Korea.
· Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn (2006) The Role of the Experimenter in HRI Research - a Case Study Evaluation of Children with Autism Interacting with a Robotic Toy. Proc. The 15th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN06), Haftield, UK.
· Megan Davis , Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Christopher Nehaniv Stuart Powell (2005), A comparison of interactive and robotic systems in therapy and education for children with autism. In proc. Assistive Technology from Virtuality to Reality - 8th European Conference for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe AAATE05, Lille , France , 6-9 September, 2005.
· Ben Robins, Paul Dickerson, Penny Stribling and Kerstin Dautenhahn (2005), Robots as embodied beings - Interactionally sensitive body movements in interactions among autistic children and a robot. In proc. 14th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication -RO-MAN05, Nashville , USA , 13-15 August 2005.
· Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Janek Dubowsky (2005), Robots as Isolators or Mediators for Children with Autism? A Cautionary Tale, Proc. AISB05: Social Intelligence and Interaction in Animals, Robots and Agents, 12-15 April 2005, Hatfield, UK.
· Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Rene te Boekhorst, Aude Billard (2004), Robots as Assistive Technology - Does Appearance Matter?, Proc. IEEE Ro-man 2004, 13th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication September 20-22, 2004 Kurashiki , Okayama Japan. This paper won the best paper award at the 14th IEEE RO-MAN 2005 international workshop.
· Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Janek Dubowski (2004), Investigating Autistic Children's Attitudes Towards Strangers with the Theatrical Robot - A New Experimental Paradigm in Human-Robot Interaction Studies, Proc. IEEE Ro-man 2004, 13th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication September 20-22, 2004 Kurashiki, Okayama Japan.
· Kerstin Dautenhahn, Iain Werry, Aude Billard, Ben Robins, Tamie Salter (2003), Robots That Autistic Children Can Play With Proc.The 7th international Congress Autism Europe Lisboa 2003. November 14-17 , 2003 Lisbon , Portugal .
Others:
· Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn. (2004), Interacting with robots: Can we encourage social interaction skills in children with autism? ACM SIGACCESS Accessibility and Computing archive Issue 80, pp 6-12, ACM Press, New York, USA, September 2004.
Invited Talks & Other Academic Activities:
- Invited speaker at the research colloquium, University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany. August 2022
- Invited speaker at the research colloquium, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey. June 2022
- Invited speaker at the research colloquium, Gdansk University of Technology, Gdansk, Poland. June 2022
- Invited Speaker at the international research colloquium
organised by the Centre for Robotics and Neural Systems (CRNS) -University of Plymouth, UK May 2022
- Invited speaker at the research colloquium at the Occupational Therapy dept.,
Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel, February 2022
- Invited keynote talk at the Extended Research Project
Conference, University of Roehampton, London, U.K. March 2020
- Invited keynote talk + Kaspar exhibition at ATiA 2020 . Orlando, U.S.A January 2020
- Invited speaker at the workshop “Social Human-Robot Interaction of Human-care Service Robots” at the IEEE Ro-Man2019 conference, New-Delhi, India, October 2019
- Invited keynote talk at the Extended Research Project Annual Conference, University of Roehampton, London, U.K. March 2019
- Invited keynote speaker at a conference titled " Play in Autism and beyond: A Froebelian Exploration of Gifts", Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, U.K. Dec 2018
- Invited Keynote Speaker at the ‘Autumn school’ of the
Italian Society of Special Education, Bergamo Italy, Nov 2018
- Invited talk at a seminar for researchers, educators and
families of people with disabilities by the Italian
Association of persons with disabilities, Bergamo, Italy, Nov
2018
- Invited keynote speaker at the BAILAR workshop "3rd Workshop on Behavior Adaptation, Interaction and Learning for Assistive Robotics" in conjunction with Ro-Man2018 conference, Nanjing, China, August 2018
- Invited keynote speaker at a workshop titled " Ethical
dialogues for developing socially responsible robots for
children with autism", De Montfort University,
Leicester, May 2018
- Invited keynote speaker at the International Conference on
Disability and Rehabilitation, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia , April
2018
- Invited keynote speaker at a workshop on Social Robotics at the Human and Technology Centre, Eindhoven Technical University, Eindhoven, The Netherlands , February 2018
- Invited Speaker and Kaspar exhibition at the Science Museum' s 'Night Owls' event, London, December 2017
- Speaker and exhibitor of Kaspar the Autism Show , Excel ,
London June 2017
- Invited speaker at JSSR 2016 Symposium on Social Robotics, Abu-Dhabi, November 2016
- Invited speaker - panel on technology and disabilities , Google Campus, London November 2016
- Invited keynote speaker at the plenary meeting – ‘Technology and children with disabilities’ COST action LUDI, Malta , October 2016
- Invited keynote speaker – at a seminar about Autism and Technology, part of a seminar series funded by ESRC titled ‘Innovative technologies for autism – critical reflections on digital bubbles’ , Bournemouth, UK, (November 2015)
- Invited keynote speaker at AuTech 2015 – Autism, Assistive Technologies and Sensory Issues conference, Manchester, UK. October 2015
- Co-Organiser of a workshop titled " Technology and Play for Children with Disabilities” at the 6th International Conference on Disabilities, “Unity & Diversity in Action”, Tel Aviv, Israel (June 2015)
- Invited speaker at a seminar for professional staff at at Beit Issi Shapiro, Ra'annana, Israel (June 2015)
- Invited keynote speaker at the international seminar New Friends- Therapeutic Application of Robots in Healthcare, organised at Windesheim Flevoland University of Applied Science, Almere, The Netherlands, September 2014.
- Co-Organiser of a workshop titled "Taking Care of Each Other: Synchronisation and Reciprocity for Social Companion Robots, at ICSR 2013, International Conference on Social Robotics, 27-29 October 2013, Bristol, UK.
- Invited keynote speaker and robot exhibitor, presenting the work of KASPAR and children with Autism at a symposium titled “Robots supporting care”, orgenised for nationwide care professionals by Zuyd University, the Netherlands, October 2013.
- Orgenised a workshop titled: "Kaspar, a minimally expressive robot for robot assisted therapy" at a Summer School on Social Human-Robot Interaction, Christ's college, Cambridge, UK August 2013.
- Invited keynote lecture presenting the work of KASPAR and children with Autism at a summer course on Robots in Healthcare, organised at Windesheim Flevoland University of Applied Science, Almere, The Netherlands, August 2013.
- Robot exhibitor and presenter of the KASPAR project at COST event "The future concept and reality of Social Robotics: Challenges, Perception and Applications" organised by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology), International Press Centre, Brussels (BE), 10-13 June 2013.
- Invited
speaker at the National Autistic Society – professional
conference, title of talk: "The robot KASPAR as a therapeutic
tool: encouraging social interaction skills in children with
autism", Harrogate, UK, March 2013.
- Invited Speaker at the Science Museum' s 'LATES' event, London, September 2012
- Organising a special session on "Situated Interaction and Embodiment - the use of social robotic systems in education and care for people with special needs" together with Prof. Kerstin Dautenhahn at ICSR 2012, International Conference on Social Robotics, 29-31 October, Chengdu, China.
- Invited speaker
at the International Symposium "From the Lab to Autism
Treatment-Bridging Success", The Institute for Child
Development, Shiba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel. 9-10
September 2012.
- Invited speaker at the National Autistic Society – professional conference, title of talk: "KASPAR as a therapeutic tool: encouraging social interaction skills in children with autism", Manchester, UK, March 2012.
- Invited speaker at the EU Robotics Forum- workshop on Social Robots and Social Pedagogical Approaches, Odense, Denmark, March 2012.
- Organised a tutorial at IEEE RO-MAN 2011 on “Developing Skin-Based Technologies for Interactive Robots - Challenges in design, development and the possible integration in therapeutic environments”, together with Prof. Kerstin Dautenhahn, Dr. Farshid Abdollahian, Dr. Fulvio Mastrogiovanni and Prof. Giorgio Cannata , July 2011, Atlanta, GA.
- Invited speaker at the Robot with Children workshop part of the 6th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2011) March 2011, Lausanne, Switzerland.
- Organised a Special session on " Human Robot Social and Assistive Interaction - design and implementation challenges in the use of HRI in assistive technologies for people with special needs", together with Prof. Kerstin Dautenhahn, at the 2nd International Conference on Social Robotics, November 2010, Singapore.
- Invited speaker at the 2nd International Workshop on "The Mechanisation of Empathy in Health Care" , Bergamo, Italy, September 2010.
- Organised a tutorial at IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2010 ) on "Robots for children with special needs: technology and design challenges for an effective integration in therapeutic and educational environments", together with Prof. Kerstin Dautenhahn, Prof. Patrizia Marti and Dr. Gernot Kronrief, May 2010, Anchorage, Alaska .
- Invited speaker at WorldORT seminar "Robots in Schools" - 8th International Annual Hatter Seminar, November 2009, London, UK.
- Organised a tutorial at IEEE RO-MAN 2009 on "Developing assistive technologies for children and adults with special needs: A user-centred approach", together with Prof. Kerstin Dautenhahn, Prof. Kazuyoshi Wada and Prof. Patrizia Marti., September 2009, Toyama, Japan
- Invited speaker at a seminar for professional staff at the program for Children and Young People at Anna Freud Centre, September 2009, London, UK.
- Organised a special session on " "The use of robots in play for children with disabilities “, together with Kersin Dautenhahn, at the 11th IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, ICORR’09, 23-26 June 2009, Kyoto, Japan.
- Invited speaker at HANDIMATICA 2008 - the 7th National Exhibition-Conference on Information Technologies for the Integration of People with Disabilities, 27-29 November 2008, ASPHI Foundation, Bolonga, Italy.
- Invited speaker at the 3rd International Symposium on "Autism Along Lifespan – New Treatment Horizons", 27-28 February 2008, The Institute for Child Development, Shiba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel.
- Invited Speaker at a seminar for professional staff at Marlborough Family Service , North London NHS foundation Trust - January 2008 , London, UK.
- Organised a special session on "Learning and Interaction in Children with Autism", together with Kersin Dautenhahn, at the 6th IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning, ICDL2007, 11-13 July 2007, London, UK
- Organised a special session on "Robot assisted play", together with Kerstin Dautenhahn, at the 16th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, RO-MAN 2007, 26-29 August 2007, Jeju island, Korea
- Organised a tutorial "Autism and Affective-Social Computing" together with Rana el Kaliouby, Rosalind W. Picard, and Kersin Dautenhahn at the second International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII2007) 12-14 September 2007, Lisbon, Portugal.
- Invited Lecturer at a seminar at Aalborg University, March 2007, Esbjerg, Denmark
- Invited speaker at the conference "technology for children with ASD" 6th October 2006 , Coventry University, Coventry, UK.
- Invited Speaker at the TACT symposium " Thought in Action: a possible new strategy for early diagnosis of autistic disorder", 30 May 2006, Campus Bio-Medico University, Rome, Italy
- Invited speaker at the "Seminar on Robotics and Computer Science Technologies for People with Autism", 06 February 2006, University of Palermo, Sicily, Italy.
- Invited speaker at the 3rd seminar of the Scottish Autism Research group (SARG) " From socio-cognitive research to information technology for autistic spectrum disorders", 11th November 2005, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland
- Invited speaker at the 2nd International Symposium on "New Technologies for Children's Play", 06 October 2005, Maersk Institute for Technology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
- Invited speaker at the Vienna Workshop 2004: "Dimensions of Sociality-Shaping Relationships with Machines", 19-20 November 2004, Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Vienna, Austria.
- Brazil TV FEB 18’ https://noticias.r7.com/domingo-espetacular/videos/robos-humanoides-sao-usados-para-ajudar-o-desenvolvimento-de-criancas-com-autismo-21022018
- BBC2 - Dec 17’ - TV documentary – “Six Robots and Us”
- Daily Mail Article Dec 17’ -http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5213631/Autistic-boy-5-forms-astonishing-bond-talking-doll.html
- South Korea – Nov 17’ http://dongascience.donga.com/news.php?idx=20652
- AutismEye journal- Spring 17 , Issue25 p 16
- Reuters - 31st March 2017: A news report by Reuters was released . Article can be seen here. The video can be seen here.
- Daily Mail article MAR 17’ – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4368196/British-robot-helping-autistic-children-social-skills.ht
- Day Nursery Journal – Aug 16
https://www.daynurseries.co.uk/news/article.cfm/id/1577637/Kaspar-the-friendly-robot-teaches-children-human-feelings
- BBC technology news - 16 May 2015 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-32710739
- CNBC International news report 06 Aug 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZzFWG8OkNE&feature=youtu.be
- ITV1 - 2nd December 2011: ITV1 national television- children program on technology.
- BBC1 - 19th August 2011: BBC1 television program – The One Show
- C4 - 21th April 2011: TV interview at Fern Britton's show on C4 (click here to watch)
- BBC1- 16th March 2011: BBC1 television news report (click here to watch).
- ITV - 15th March 2011: ITV television news report .
- AP - 8th March 2011: A news report by Associated Press was released. (to watch click here).
- AP 7th March 2011: an article by the Associated Press was reported online by many news sites throughout the world.
- BSN - 22nd May 2009: The British Satellite News (BSN) reported the work with Kaspar and children with autism.
- 7th August 2008: the work with Kaspar and children with autism has been reported online by Bayerischer Rundfunk, a radio and TV-station in Germany.
- NHK _ 24th May 2008: NHK -Japanese national television, a documentary program dedicated to out our work with children with Autism (click here to watch)
- SAT1 - 24th April 2008: SAT.1: Planetopia - a science magazine on German television (click here to watch with amateur subtitles)
- 16th August 2007: the work with Kaspar and children with autism has been reported (in German) in Spiegel Online (to view click here)
- August 2007 : an article in 'ZEIT Wissen' magazine - a bimonthly magazine of the German daily newspaper Die ZEIT, that covers scientific topics. Schau Mir in Die Augen - article about the use of the Humanoid robot Kaspar with children with Autism. 5/2007, p 86-91.
- BBC World, - 30th May 2007: Live interviewes on BBC World Service, BBC Radio 4, and BBC Three Counties radio stations..
- BBC - 29th May 2007: BBC1 television news report (click here to watch)
- 3rd August 2003: an article on the Aurora project in Frankfurter Allgemine Sonntagszeitung, 3rd August 2003, p 51,
- ZDF- 4th August 2003: 21.30, 3SAT/ZDF German television station : Neues Spezial - Geniale Teams: Roboter auf dem Weg in die autistische Seele, a documentary on Aurora project
- SAT1-14th March 2004: SAT.1: Planetopia - a science magazine on German television, a program on the newest developments in robotics had a brief coverage of our work with robots and autistic children.