Development of multiple robot system promoting self-disclosure for individuals with autism spectrum disorders.

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K20857
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 9:Education and related fields
• Research Institution: Nagasaki University (2022); National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry (2020-2021)
• Principal Investigator: Kumazaki Hirokazu 長崎大学, 医歯薬学総合研究科(医学系), 教授 (70445336)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 吉川 雄一郎 大阪大学, 大学院基礎工学研究科, 准教授 (60418530)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-07-30 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: ロボット / 自閉スペクトラム症 / 自己開示

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Participants whose diagnosis is autistic spectrum disorder experienced a multi-robot system in a daycare setting. People who usually hesitate to self-disclose to day care staff communicated positively and self-disclosed to the multi-robot system. Not only the participants but also other day care users observed this behavior during the experiment and observed that they continued to self-disclose to each other even after the experiment was finished. One of the advantages of a multi robot system is that when a participant gets stuck in a conversation, another robot, which is not engaged in the conversation, can follow up and encourage the continuation of the conversation. On the other hand, although the conversation continued, the content of the conversation did not deepen over time, which was an issue.

Free Research Field

精神神経学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

デイケア利用者にいかに自己開示を促すかは課題となっている。自己開示が進むことで、利用者の自己満足度及び、スタッフの利用者についての理解が進むことが期待される。本研究では、普段はデイケアスタッフに自己開示をためらい、患者様同士のコミュニケーションに回避傾向のある患者様が複数体ロボットシステムに対しては前向きにコミュニケーションし、日頃より多く自己開示した。患者様が前向きに自己開示をした意義は大きい。