Robots to Help Children to Form Relationships From: PhysOrg.com - 05/30/2007 Researchers at the University of Hertfordshire are bringing KASPAR (Kinesics and Synchronization in Personal Assistant Robotics) into local schools in an effort to study the effectiveness of using robots to help children with disabilities develop socials skills. The Interactive Robotic Social Mediators as Companions (IROMEC) project, follows Hertfordshire's success with AuRoRA (Autonomous mobile Robot as a Remedial tool for Autistic children) in encouraging imitation and turn-taking behavior. "This previous research led us to using KASPAR, a child-sized humanoid robot, with minimum facial expressions, which can move its arms and legs and allows the child to interact with it," says Dr. Ben Robins. The three-year project, funded by the European Sixth Framework, will help reveal the potential of robotic toys as mediators of human contact for children with special needs. "We are seeing already that through interacting with the robot, children who would not normally mix are becoming interested in getting involved with other children and humans in general and we believe that this work could pave the way for having robots in the classroom and in homes to facilitate this interaction," add Robins. Other members of the Hertfordshire team include professor Kerstin Dautenhahn and Dr. Ester Ferrari in the School of Computer Science. Read the entire article at: http://www.physorg.com/news99649531.html http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=72559 Links: Kaspar http://kaspar.feis.herts.ac.uk/ Aurora project http://www.aurora-project.com/ IROMEC project http://www.iromec-project.co.uk/ Kaspar, the Friendly Robot http://www.raisingkids.co.uk/todaysnews07/news_010607_01.asp Robots and AuRoRA http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqbr/aurora/background/robots.html Dr. Ben Robins http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqbr/ Autonomous mobile Robot as a remedial tool for Autistic children http://www.fastuk.org/research/projview.php?id=476