KASPAR

KASPAR (Kinesics and Synchronization in Personal Assistant Robotics) is a child sized robot developed by Adaptive Systems Research Group from the Universty of Hertfordshire.  This group is also part of RobotCub, a European organization.

KASPAR will be used to study children with autism and to that end, they have been developing a special skin called Roboskin.

Children with autism have problems with touch, often with either touching or being touched, said Professor Kerstin Dautenhahn. The idea is to put skin on the robot as touch is a very important part of social development and communication and the tactile sensors will allow the robot to detect different types of touch and it can then encourage or discourage different approaches.

Kids might not see this, but I see some uncanny valley creeping in.

See our previous post about iCub from RobotCub.

Watch the video after the break.

Link via (The Engineer) via (Science Daily)