(Magíster en Ingeniería Electrónica )

According to WHO, 1 in 160 children suffers from Autism spectrum disorder (ASD),
a neuroatypical disorder defined by a range of social behaviours. This disorder affects the subject’s ability to interact with others, lack of attention, and sometimes
language difficulties. Although there is no cure, the sooner the disorder is diagnosed, and a therapy process is started, the better the long-term results will be
for the subject. Recently, various emerging technologies have been used to capture
children’s attention in therapy. This is why robotic agents have been implemented
in therapies showing great potential in improving communication skills, recognition
skills, and emotions and nonverbal expressions. However, many studies do not have
robots specifically designed for this type of therapy. Some robots do not have the
structural strength to maintain physical interaction with users, limiting the sessions. This work presents the proposal for a novel social robot specially designed
to treat CwASD. For the development of this device, a process of selecting design
criteria based on a participatory design (PD) methodology was carried out with
caregivers, medical staff and parents. With this information, an outline of the robot
design was made, and an ergonomic study was carried out to determine the optimal dimensions and proportions of the robot. The robot underwent an aesthetic
design of appearance process, which was tested and evaluated through a study
conducted with 21 children with ASD. The core of this work focuses on implementing mechanisms that maximize the physical interaction that the robotic agent can
maintain with the user. Therefore, bio-inspired actuators based on elastic elements
in series were implemented. Finally, a robotic device capable of withstanding long
sessions over time was obtained, encouraging researchers and therapists to conduct
long-term studies that will yield more significant results.