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Although robots are generally emotionless, researchers have constantly tried to make them better at caring for humans. Researchers from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology announced that they created a robotic arm with the sense of touch. This arm could pick out certain objects from a pile of clutter without the help of its eyes. The roboticists hope that this robot arm can be modified into robots that could ideally tend to the elderly and to patients. Now, researchers are looking to develop a better robot that could help children with autism. The study's lead researcher and associate professor of psychology from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, Joshua Diehl, found that incorporating a robot co-therapist could help autistic children develop language and social skills faster.

Diehl and his colleagues wanted to see if a robot co-therapist could help autistic children learn faster and develop social skills better. The researchers believed that since robots, which can also include tablets and smartphones, can be computerized to be simple, autistic children might be more receptive to them as opposed to a human therapist who can be capricious and complex due to factors such as facial expressions and body language. Although the researchers were "skeptical," they discovered that children appeared to have more to gain from the presence of robots.

The study recruited 19 children between the ages of six and 13 diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. The children were asked to complete 12 sessions of behavioral therapy with a professional whose job was to train the children on social skills. Half of the sessions occurred with the robot that was created by Aldebaran Robotics, which is a company that targets this specific NAO robot to the special education and education agencies. The robot stands at two feet tall and is comparable to the size of a toy car. The version of the robot used in this experiment was named Kelly and Kelly acted as a communication tool, attempting to strike up a conversation with the child. Kelly would ask very general questions, such as "What did you do today?" These questions were asked by another person during the sessions without Kelly.

Although the sample size was extremely small and limited, the researchers concluded that kids had bigger gains when Kelly was in the room. However, the researchers also acknowledged that each child reacted differently to Kelly, which is why screening for autistic children that could benefit the most from Kelly would be very important in future treatment methods for ASDs.

"Broadly speaking, we are very excited about the potential role for technology in diagnosing and treating ASDs," Geraldine Dawson, the chief science officer for the advocacy group Autism Speaks, said. "But she also agreed with Diehl that the findings are 'very preliminary,' and that researchers have a lot more to learn about how technology - robots or otherwise - fits into ASD therapies."

The findings will be presented on Saturday, May 6 2013 at the International Meeting for Autism researcher (IMFAR) in San Sebastian, Spain.