The overall context proposed in this paper is part of our long-standing goal to contribute to a group of community that suffers from Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD); a lifelong developmental disability. The objective of this paper is to present the development of our pilot experiment protocol where children with ASD will be exposed to the humanoid robot NAO. This fully programmable humanoid offers an ideal research platform for human-robot interaction (HRI). This study serves as the platform for fundamental investigation to observe the initial response and behavior of the children in the said environment. The system utilizes external cameras, besides the robot's own visual system. Anticipated results are the real initial response and reaction of ASD children during the HRI with the humanoid robot. This shall leads to adaptation of new procedures in ASD therapy based on HRI, especially for a non-technical-expert person to be involved in the robotics intervention during the therapy session.

This report presents the findings from our pilot study on the initial behavior of autistic children of moderately impaired intelligence when exposed to simple human-robot interaction (HRI) modules executed by a humanoid robot NAO. All 5 children have been specifically assessed using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) and their diagnosis is classified as autistic disorder. We hypothesize that NAO's human-like appearance, its capability to blink its eyes, speak and play music; coupled with the simplicity of the HRI modules will be able to entice the children's interest to engage in communication. Hence, this would significantly reduce the children's autistic characteristics in communication behavior compared to the usual class setting. In this study, the principal result shows that 4 out of the 5 children exhibited a decrease of autistic behavior (in communication subscale) when the robot is executing HRI modules during the single session of child-robot interaction. This promising outcome indicates that the NAO robot were able to attract the children's attention, keep each child engaged with the robot during interaction and hence give positive impact to the children's communication behavior. Relating this to the children's FSIQ, it can be deducted that autistic children with FSIQ of moderately impaired (from 40-54) are receptive to robot-based intervention. This is again showed by the lower autistic traits observed during the HRI modules compared to in-class setting. Overall, this research suggests that autistic children of moderately impaired intelligence show good response to robot-based intervention. This finding is crucial to form a solid foundation and proof on the positive utilization of the humanoid robot NAO for the children affected by autism

Humanoids; a most intriguing subject to behold by both the engineers and the world at large. With the introduction of humanoid robot NAO by Aldebaran-Robotics in 2008, a performant biped robot is now available and affordable for research laboratories and the mass market. In this paper, an exploration of current trends in control methods of biped walks, behavior interface tools for motion control for NAO and imminent findings in both research areas are discussed. Future directions are for researchers to devise a unique controller with low power consumption without compromising the robot's speed and robustness.