NIH R21/R33: Transformative Co-Robotic Technology for Autism Intervention

NIH R21/R33：用于自闭症干预的变革性协作机器人技术

• 批准号: 8827857
• 负责人: NILANJAN SARKAR
• 金额: $ 22.88万
• 依托单位: VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-04-01 至 2016-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8827857
• 关键词: Age; Architecture; Area; Attention; Autistic Disorder; Behavior; Behavior Therapy; Caring; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.); Child; Client satisfaction; Computers; Control Groups; Data; Decision Making; Detection; Development; Disease; E-learning; Early Intervention; Early identification; Early treatment; Environment; Etiology; Event; Expert Systems; Eye; Family; Goals; Health; Human; Individual; Intervention; Learning; Literature; Longevity; Mediating; Methodology; Modality; Monitor; Motion; Movement; Neurodevelopmental Deficit; Non-Invasive Cancer Detection; Outcome; Performance; Phase; Pilot Projects; Population; Prevalence; Process; Protocols documentation; Reaction; Relative (related person); Research; Resources; Robot; Robotics; Sampling; Science; Services; Symptoms; System; Technology; Testing; Time; United States; United States National Institutes of Health; Validation; autism spectrum disorder; base; cost; design; disorder prevention; evidence base; gaze; improved; innovation; joint attention; new technology; novel; operation; orientation selectivity; pilot trial; public health emergency; research study; response; skills; social; social communication; success; system architecture; tool; virtual reality

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): With the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) prevalence estimates for children with ASD at 1 in 88, effective early identification and treatment is often characterized as a public health emergency. Given the present limits of intervention science and the enormous costs of the disorder across the lifespan, there is an urgent need for more efficacious treatments that can enhance intervention outcomes. A growing number of studies have investigated the application of advanced interactive technologies to ASD intervention, including computer technology, virtual reality (VR) environments, and more recently, robotic systems. The primary goal of the proposed research is the design and preliminary testing of a robust robotic intervention platform and environment specifically designed to accelerate improvements in early areas of core ASD deficit. In particular, it focuses on developing a robotic intervention system (ARIA: Adaptive Robot-mediated Intervention Architecture) capable of seamlessly integrating real-time, non-invasive detection of gaze with an intelligent environment endowed with the ability to autonomously alter system function based on child performance to impact early joint attention skills, thought to be fundamental social communication building blocks central to etiology and treatment of ASD. While it is unlikely that technological advances will take the place of traditional intervention paradigms, we hypothesize that adaptive robotic systems may hold great value as potential accelerant technologies that enhance learning intervention modalities in potent ways, particularly for children who show powerful differences in their contingent responses to non-biological actions and events relative to interactions with social partners at very early ages. In the proposed research, we will investigate the realistic potential of robotic technology for young children with ASD via explicit design and tests of such a system to improve performance within the domain of early joint attention skills. Thus, the specific aims and milestones of the R21 phase of our project focus on: 1) Achieving integration of noncontact gaze technology into the system, 2) realizing autonomous closed-loop operation of our system architecture, and 3) demonstrating adequate initial user functioning while interacting with the autonomous system. Subsequent to attaining these milestones and demonstrating initial system capacity, the R33 phase of our project will assess the performance of the robot-mediated architecture during a pilot intervention experiment. This trial will specifically evaluate system capacities as related t very young children with ASD as well as feasibility data related to recruitment and retention in the protocol, user tolerance, and patient satisfaction. This pilot trial will also assess within system improvement in joint attention skills, as well as a methodology for assessing potential generalization of such skills in a larger trial.

描述（由申请人提供）：根据美国疾病控制与预防中心 (CDC) 的最新估计，自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 儿童的患病率为 88 分之一，有效的早期识别和治疗通常被视为突发公共卫生事件。鉴于目前干预科学的局限性以及该疾病在整个生命周期中造成的巨大成本，迫切需要更有效的治疗方法来增强干预效果。越来越多的研究调查了先进交互技术在 ASD 干预中的应用，包括计算机技术、虚拟现实 (VR) 环境以及最近的机器人系统。拟议研究的主要目标是设计和初步测试一个强大的机器人干预平台和环境，专门用于加速核心 ASD 缺陷早期领域的改善。特别是，它专注于开发一种机器人干预系统（ARIA：自适应机器人介导的干预架构），该系统能够将实时、非侵入性的注视检测与智能环境无缝集成，该环境具有基于信息自动改变系统功能的能力。儿童的表现会影响早期的共同注意力技能，这被认为是自闭症谱系障碍病因学和治疗的基本社交沟通基础。虽然技术进步不太可能取代传统的干预范式，但我们假设自适应机器人系统作为潜在的促进技术可能具有巨大的价值，可以有效地增强学习干预方式，特别是对于那些在偶然反应中表现出巨大差异的儿童与很小的时候与社会伙伴互动相关的非生物行为和事件。在拟议的研究中，我们将通过对此类系统的明确设计和测试来调查机器人技术对于患有自闭症谱系障碍的幼儿的现实潜力，以提高早期联合注意力技能领域的表现。因此，我们项目 R21 阶段的具体目标和里程碑重点关注：1）实现非接触式凝视技术与系统的集成，2）实现系统架构的自主闭环操作，以及 3）展示足够的初始用户功能与自治系统交互时。在实现这些里程碑并展示初始系统容量之后，我们项目的 R33 阶段将在试点干预实验期间评估机器人介导的架构的性能。该试验将专门评估与自闭症谱系障碍幼儿相关的系统能力，以及与方案中的招募和保留、用户耐受性和患者满意度相关的可行性数据。该试点试验还将评估系统内联合注意力技能的改进，以及评估此类技能在更大规模试验中的潜在泛化能力的方法。