RoboKind

RoboKind is a developer of humanoid social robotics intended to help teach social skills to children on the autism spectrum. The company utilizes a social-emotional curriculum and artificial intelligence robots that are facially and emotionally expressive. The program can be used by educators for autism intervention, special education, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics instruction and research.

The company has developed Robots4Autism and RoboSteps programs and uses the social robots to offer life-like facial expressions and natural social interaction, along with a curriculum to help educators and therapists supplement autism therapy and education. The curriculum includes subjects like emotional recognition and understanding, conversational skills and dynamics, how learners can deal with social situations, and how they can calm themselves down when feeling overwhelmed, to increase their self-regulation. Increased self-regulation can lead to better learning and life experience for learners, allowing them to have more confidence in building meaningful social relationships.

The Milo model of RoboKind's robotics.

RoboKind's robotics are developed using evidence-based practices from applied behavior analysis, speech language pathology, and occupational therapy to help develop the robots for thier intended use cases. Further, the robots include video modeling to use visual reinforcement to help students with social narratives. The company offers four different robot models: Milo, Carver, Veda, and Jemi.

RoboKind's student impact video exploring the impact their robotics are intended to offer to learners on the autism spectrum.

RoboKind has worked to build a program based on multidisciplinary developmental behavioral approach to use speech language pathology, occupational therapy, and applied behavioral analysis in order to have the results with the social-learning robots. Some places where the robots have been used for either research or for helping learners on the autism spectrum have included South Carolina's Department of Education, which used the robots over a three-year period for over 600 students across fifteen districts; the McCarthy-Teszler School, a specialty center that serves around 240 special education students from seven local school districts; UT Dallas Callier Center; Children's Therapy Works; Orange Grove Center; and the International Society for Autism Research.

RoboKind also offers professional learning for various positions in education, such as administrators, therapists, special educators, and paraprofessionals. The company believes this education should be ongoing, relevant, and effective, and their learning modules and sessions work with the RoboKind robots to help users understand how best to use them in teaching, therapy, and research.