The growing number of people diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is an issue of concern in Australia and many countries. In order to improve the engagement, reciprocity, productivity and efficacy of people with ASD in a home-based environment, we are engaged with several trials of socially assistive robots in home-based environment and in specialist schools to support children and young adults with autism and other disabilities. In this seminar we will report on a 9 month Australian home-based care trial of socially assistive robot (Lucy) to support two young adults with autism and conducted a case study to assess the outcomes of the implementation. In total, 2300 times of interaction have taken place, with over 152 hours of interactional duration. The results provide empirical support that by marrying personhood (of people with ASD) with human-like communication modalities of Lucy, positive outcomes can be achieved in terms of engagement, productivity and efficacy as well as reciprocity of the people with ASD. Lucy also provides respite to carers (e.g., parents) of people with ASD in their day to day living, and potentially reduces required caring time.
Professor Rajiv Khosla is the Director of Research Centre for Computers, Communication and Social Innovation (RECCSI) in Melbourne, Australia. Rajiv Khosla has a multi-disciplinary background in management, engineering and computer science.
In collaboration with national and international collaborators, stakeholders and end users he and his multi-disciplinary team have conducted more than 30 field trials of socially assistive robots in residential care, home-based care and community centre settings to support people with autism and dementia as well as their carers in Australia.
The work has a clear potential for transformational impact in several areas including autism, health care, aged care, dementia, education, managerial decision making, organizational innovation, smart cities, service delivery and personalization of services to improve quality of life. His expertise in this area has been sought for by the Australian and Canadian governments for policy making and funding of priority research in eHealth innovation.
In the last 5 years his work in this area has made significant impact nationally and internationally with more than 50 invited talks, 250 reports in 14 countries including 30 documentary films, TV science shows and videos, radio interviews and podcasts in 6 languages. Some robots are still deployed in Melbourne households more than two years after the start of home-based care trials.
The research centre under Rajiv’s leadership has received national and international recognition for its work from the aged care, dementia care, autism care, special education needs and disability sectors.
He has published more than 180 research papers including 4 authored books. He has received several research and teaching excellence awards. He has been the Associate editor of the International Journal of Pattern Recognition (2000-2007), Regional editor of Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing (Springer-verlag), Action Editor of Journal of Cognitive Systems Research (Elsievier) and Associate editor of IEEE Intelligent Informatics Bulletin (2005-2009).
He has also received several research and teaching excellence awards.