Research Publications
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Item Open Access Designing Culturally Adaptive Emotional Gestures to Enhance Child-Robot Interaction with NAO Robots in ASD Therapy(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2025) Manukalpa, C.S; Pulasinghe, K; Rajapakshe, SIntegrating social robots into human-robot interactions demands advancements in natural language processing, navigation, computer vision, and expressive gestures to foster meaningful interactions. However, a gap remains in designing culturally relevant and developmentally appropriate gestures, particularly in the Sri Lankan context. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), a neurodevelopmental condition impacting early education, often remains underdiagnosed, exacerbating learning challenges. This study introduces a novel approach utilizing robot-child interactions for ASD screening to minimize such delays. Expressive gestures were developed for the NAO6 humanoid robot to engage Sinhala-speaking children aged 2 to 6 years, including those with ASD, in Sri Lanka. Using the NAOqi Python API and Choregraphe simulator, culturally aligned gestures expressing emotions like happiness, sadness, fear, anger, and more were designed and synchronized with voice and LED effects. Pilot studies with typical children demonstrated the significance of linguistic and cultural alignment in enhancing engagement, emotional response, and trust. By addressing cultural nuances and advancing early ASD screening, this framework holds potential for broader applications in education, therapy, and diagnosis, improving human-robot interactions globally.Publication Open Access A predictive model for paediatric autism screening(SAGE Publications, 2020-12) Wingfield, B; Miller, S; Yogarajah, P; Kerr, D; Gardiner, B; Seneviratne, S; Samarasinghe, P; Coleman, SAutism spectrum disorder is an umbrella term for a group of neurodevelopmental disorders that is associated with impairments to social interaction, communication, and behaviour. Typically, autism spectrum disorder is first detected with a screening tool (e.g. modified checklist for autism in toddlers). However, the interpretation of autism spectrum disorder behavioural symptoms varies across cultures: the sensitivity of modified checklist for autism in toddlers is as low as 25 per cent in Sri Lanka. A culturally sensitive screening tool called pictorial autism assessment schedule has overcome this problem. Low- and middle-income countries have a shortage of mental health specialists, which is a key barrier for obtaining an early autism spectrum disorder diagnosis. Early identification of autism spectrum disorder enables intervention before atypical patterns of behaviour and brain function become established. This article proposes a culturally sensitive autism spectrum disorder screening mobile application. The proposed application embeds an intelligent machine learning model and uses a clinically validated symptom checklist to monitor and detect autism spectrum disorder in low- and middle-income countries for the first time. Machine learning models were trained on clinical pictorial autism assessment schedule data and their predictive performance was evaluated, which demonstrated that the random forest was the optimal classifier (area under the receiver operating characteristic (0.98)) for embedding into the mobile screening tool. In addition, feature selection demonstrated that many pictorial autism assessment schedule questions are redundant and can be removed to optimise the screening process.