Cuddly ‘Popchilla’ Robot To Help Children With Autism

Posted on August 13, 2010 by Jennifer Latkiewicz

Could a floppy-eared robot named Popchilla help bridge the gap between our world and the world of an autistic child?

As part of a new program that pairs the Autism Center of Pittsburgh with Interbots, Inc., a high-tech robotics company associated with the Carnegie Mellon University Entertainment Technology Center, Popchilla will be used to provide innovative robot-based therapy and will test the abilities of autistic children who have limited or no verbal skills.

Based on the premise that children with Autism are sometimes more likely to communicate with a non-human entity, “Character Therapy” will see Popchilla used with a trained therapist in conjunction with an interactive iPad application by developers and programmers at Interbots.

[MORE on GLOSS: Personal Robots by the End of the Year? Yup.]

In the first phase of the program, the therapist will direct sessions, with control of Popchilla eventually transitioning to the child with the idea that they will use the robot to express themselves and explore emotions on their own. By using Popchilla as an intermediary, researchers hope to better understand the child’s internal feelings, and help children with Autism identify the emotions they are feeling.

“We’ve had numerous individuals tell us our robots could be tremendous tools for Autism therapy,” said Seema Patel, CEO and co-founder of Interbots. “We’re going to learn a lot from the next few months.”

The program isn’t scheduled to begin until fall but check out this video to see Popchilla interacting with a user and the iPad application “Let’s Make Shapes!” — it’s pretty amazing. What do you think?