Development of a robotic arm to teach autistic children social movements

By controlling a robotic arm, autistic children can learn the movements associated with social interactions. The goals of my invention are that autistic children would safely interact with the robotic arm and mimic the robotic arm to replicate movements associated with social interactions. The results from my Peter J. Eloranta Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship suggest that all autistic children successfully learned social movements by mimicking a robotic arm. A more effective robotic arm would better replicate human motion than currently available commercial products. Additionally, a protective sleeve that conceals wiring and joints would make this product safer for young children, the main client of the invention.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• DuFour, Devanie

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• David Gordon Wilson.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/46640

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/46640