Roboethics - Ethical Engineering for International Development and Environmental Sustainability - page 88

Fig. 3.4 Archie

et al. 2005 ) and NAO (Barakova and Lourens 2010 ; Gillesen et al. 2011 ; Shamsuddin
et al. 2012 ) and non-humanoid robots, including a mobile fl at-topped robotic plat-
form (Werry and Dautenhahn 1999 ). The NAO robot from Aldebaran Robotics is a
commercially available 50 cm-high walking humanoid robot with 25 degrees of
freedom, digital cameras, speakers, microphones, touch sensors and wireless com-
munication capabilities. Movement, speech, touch and LEDs in the face and body
provide interactive behaviour, including simulated facial expressions. NAO is able
to communicate using simple expressions in eight languages and is able to recog-
nise and remember faces, voices and body shapes. (Gillesen et al. 2011 ). Small-
scale studies have shown that autistic children enjoy playing with these robots and
that their use can have positive impacts on social interaction and behaviours
(Dautenhahn 2007 ; Robins et al. 2005 ). However, the use of robots in this way has
frequently been based on assumptions about appropriate types of social interaction.
On the one hand this can have advantages in supporting social development and
social interaction and moves towards increased independence. On the other, if not
carefully managed, the use of robots in this way could lead to robotic-type behav-
ioural imitation without understanding and force development in ways that are not
natural for the particular autistic child and hinder the development of their strengths
and natural ways of interacting.