UM researchers using robot to study early childhood development

A new grant will fund research that will bring new insights into autism.

CB2 seems like something out of the future, a man-made robot that resembles a child. Made in Japan, the robot is designed to function as a 1- to 2-year-old, gazing intently at its surroundings and squirming on the floor. Armed with a $250,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, University of Miami Associate Professor of Psychology Daniel Messinger will use CB2 to conduct research that will shed some light on autism and infants. The project is called “Developing Social Robots, ” and it examines whether infants with autistic siblings have difficulties with positive emotion communication.

“This is the first time that I know of where robotics is being used to study autism,” said Messinger, who has been working with computer vision — showing video footage to a computer, which processes it.

Infants are intensely emotional. Much of infant life – including their emotions - take place during close interactions with their caregivers, according to Messinger.

“In our laboratory we do some sophisticated technological stuff,” he said. “We can train a computer to see a face and use software that detects facial expressions, to see infants smiling and mothers smiling and see how they are related.”

With the NSF grant, a team of UM researchers and graduate students from the Department of Psychology will then use this specialized software to teach CB2 actions that infants learn early on, such as picking up different shaped-objects, and how to move its limbs. Messinger said it takes years to teach a robot how to develop, but the outcome is valuable.

“The idea of this grant is to study babies so they can teach us how they learn, how development happens and how things can go wrong.” Messinger said.

Autism is the fastest growing developmental disability in the country. Prevalent in 1 in 150 births, it typically appears during the first three years of life and is the result of a neurological disorder that affects the normal functioning of the brain, impacting development in the areas of social interaction and communication skills. Approximately 1.5 million individuals have been diagnosed with autism or autism spectrum disorders.

“This rate is nothing short of alarming and as such, researchers must step up their efforts to better understand all aspects of this disorder,” said Dr. Michael Alessandri, executive director of The University of Miami – Nova Southeastern University Center for Autism and Related Disabilities. “Dr. Messinger's work with high risk infant siblings of children with autism and his incorporation of robotics into this line of research certainly represents the best in innovation and ingenuity, and perhaps more importantly, this line of research may yield important clinical findings for families."

October 2, 2008