PlayROB - robot-assisted playing for children with severe physical disabilities

Abstract

From a developmental and educational perspective, play is a "natural" way in which children learn in an enjoyable manner. This paper aims to describe one possible contribution of selected robotics technology and automation for making toys available to children with severe physical disabilities. This work is mainly based on a qualitative study which is aimed to analyse how children with physical disabilities play in comparison with normal children. One particular result of this study is a dedicated robot system which supports children with the above mentioned disabilities for interaction with standard toys being realized by ARC Seibersdorf research GmbH. Besides of a description of the robot system the paper gives first results from user trials and outlines future development.