LATAN and LSU robotics students help kids with special needs connect with a robot friend

In a special education classroom, the students clamor to have their turn interacting with Buddy. Some of these children struggle with verbal skills, some with maintaining eye contact, some with motor skills. Buddy can help them with all of it.

This humanoid, fully-articulated robot can recognize voices, pick itself up if knocked down, lead a yoga class, perform a song and hold your hand while you go for a walk. Just connecting with a special-needs child is one of Buddy’s most important functions.

“As humans, when we interact, there is a lot of nonverbal communication in our tone of voice, our posture, how we look at somebody,” says Susie Stewart, program supervisor at Louisiana Assistive Technology Access Network, out of which Buddy operates. “Buddy really breaks that down. … He can communicate without that. When you talk and he hears your voice, his eyes follow where your voice is. He’s always looking to have eye contact, and that’s something that he really helps [the kids with].”

While LATAN is helping kids practice communication skills, games and movement, the LSU robotics program is working on new programming for Buddy, a Nao robot by French robotics company Aldebaran Robotics. Starting with a summer internship program and continuing into the fall semester, LSU students have designed software that allows Buddy to read a book aloud and say the Pledge of Allegiance.

Stewart says LATAN and LSU are working closely together to build more functions for Buddy’s extensive capabilities, including games like bean bag toss that can engage kids.

Together, LATAN and LSU hope to make Buddy as useful and enriching as possible for children with special needs, as well as all people with disabilities. He continues to travel across Louisiana and the region, bringing with him a unique way to make new connections for people who all too often feel disconnected. latan.org

This article was originally published in the November 2016 issue of 225 Magazine.