Can NAO Robot Influence the Eye Gaze and Joint Attention of Mentally Impaired Young Adults?

Abstract

In the last decades due to technological advances, Robotics has change its paradigm, as well as, its course of development. Therefore, a new generation of robots has emerged, the Socially Assistive Robotics. These robots aim to improve the assistance to human users through social rather than physical interaction. Consequently, many are the developments made through the use of social robots in mental healthcare scenarios, regarding the elderly population and children or young adults with mental disorders, in order to either prevent cognitive decline, improve psycho-social outcomes or the patient capabilities and lifetime. However, few breakthroughs have been made in the mental disorders field that differ from studies with people with Autism Spectrum Disorders or that are conducted with adults. This study aims to demonstrate that humanoid NAO can improve attention in adults with mental disorders during certain task and kept through several sessions over time.