Cozmo as a Social Robot for APRIL

Abstract

Children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) encounter substantial problems during conversations, interactions, and emotional engagement. Traditional therapies are effective but limited by access to professional therapists and difficulty in supporting children’s attention for long periods of time. This project addresses these challenges through social robots that offer an engaging and effective environment for children during therapy. The project has two main goals: to create a microservice where a Cozmo robot performs as an assistant during therapies, and to develop a service for therapists to automate and customize lesson preparation with Cozmo. The first outcome is the Cozmo Agent Microservice, a FastAPI-based backend service integrated with the Anki Cozmo robot for use in the APRIL platform. It consists of 22 scripts, including interactive games, music, dances, storytelling, movements, and animations. During action execution, metrics are collected and computed for further analysis. The second outcome is the Script Automation Platform, a full-stack web application that generates lesson plans, quizzes, stories, games, and songs using AI-assisted chat. The service supports text-to-speech in English, Russian, and Kazakh and adapts generated action scripts to the robot’s SDK. Overall, the project serves as an additional tool for therapists working with children with ASD and aims to improve and digitalize the therapy preparation and delivery process.