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My qualifications and many years of work experience lie in two disciplines: Dance Movement Therapy (Post Graduate Diploma) and Computer Science. I have completed my PhD research degree in the school of Computer Science at the University of Hertfordshire, bringing together my expertise and experience in these two disciplines.

My research, which started in the Aurora Project, investigates the potential use of robots as therapeutic or educational 'toys' specifically for use by children with autism. The research focuses on ways that robotic systems can engage autistic children in simple interactive activities, with the aim of encouraging basic communication and social interaction skills.

My recent work was part of the European IROMEC project , which acknowledges the important role of play in child development as a crucial vehicle for learning about the physical and social environment, the self, and for developing social relationships. IROMEC targets children who are prevented from playing, either due to cognitive, developmental or physical impairments which affect their playing skills, and is investigating how robotic toys can empower children with disabilities to discover the range of play styles from solitary to social and cooperative play.

My current work is part of the European ROBOSKIN project which develops skin-based technologies and capabilities for safe autonomous and interactive robots. The project's three main objectives are: a) To develop new sensor technologies that can provide tactile feedback from large areas of the robot body; b)To develop and integrate fundamental cognitive structures for efficient and safe utilization of tactile data; c)To develop cognitive mechanisms that use tactile feedback to improve human-robot interaction capabilities particularly in the application domains of programming through demonstration and robot assisted play.

Academic Interest:

Human Robot Interaction (HRI) with specific interest in the application of robotic systems in rehabilitation, therapy and education
Autism therapy
Dance Movement Therapy

Academic Qualifications:

1980 - Diploma in Computing, Negev University, Practical Engineering College- (Beersheeba , Israel)

1990 - BA Combined Studies, Majoring in Dance, Middlesex University (UK)

1992 - Post Graduate Diploma Dance Movement Therapy - St. Albans College of Art & Design

1998 - MSc Computer Science - University of Hertfordshire (UK)

2005 - PhD research degree in Computer Science - University of Hertfordshire (UK). Title: 'A humanoid Robot as assistive technology for Encouraging Social Interaction Skills in children with autism'.

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Career History:

1981-1984: Manof Systems., Tel-Aviv - Software Developer and International Customer Support Analyst of message switching systems.
1984-1986: Communication Support Analyst - Societe Generale Bank, London
1986-1988: Senior Systems Analyst - Bank of America, London
1988 -1996 Estate Manager - Eminent Production, Essex, UK
1997-1998: MSc Degree Course Computer Science. As the final year project I developed a prototype flight simulator for pilots to train in instrument flying procedures.
1998 - 2002: Logica (UK)- IT Consultant - various projects. Examples:

Solution Designer - BT project for IP solutions and product offerings.
Test Manager - Vodacom project for a mobile phone service provider in South Africa .
Test Team Leader - G-Mobile project, internet shopping applications for a major mobile phone service provider in the UK
SAP Integration and Procedure testing - for a major mobile phone service provider.

October 2002 - Sept. 2005: PhD Research - School of Computer Science- University of Hertfordshire
Sept 2005 - Dec 2006 : Associate Lecturer / Research Fellow - University of Hertfordshire
2007 to-date: Senior Research Fellow - University of Hertfordshire

Dance Therapy and Dance in the Community activities (on part-time basis)

1985 - 1986: Teaching Electrobics courses and workshops at Pineapple Studios , as well as in community centres in north and south London.
1990 - Creative dance community workshop for people with learning difficulties - Cambridge
1991 - 1993: Dance Therapy and Creative Dance movement sessions for people with mental handicap - Orford House, Essex
1988 - 1994: Teaching and leading creative dance workshops- Eminent Theatre (a theatre group)
1994 - 2002: Leading various dance classes and workshops with Emin Arts, a charity that promotes the education of the arts, and assisting with Touchdown Dance , a charity that promotes dance work with visually impaired people.
2002 - 2003: Dance movement therapy and creative dance workshop at SENSE - Barnet (a day centre for adults with severe physical, visual and mental disabilities.

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Scientific Publications:

Book Chapters:

Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Rene te Boekhorst, Aude Billard (2004) Effects of repeated exposure to a humanoid robot on children with autism. In S. Keates, J. Clarkson, P. Langdon and P. Robinson (Eds.) Designing a More Inclusive World, Springer Verlag, London, pp. 225-236. This paper won the best paper award at CWUAAT (Cambridge Workshop on Universal Access and Assistive Technology), Cambridge , UK , 22-24 March 2004.

Journal Articles:

Ben Robins, Ester Ferrari, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Gernot Kronrief, Barbara Prazak, Gert-Jan Gerderblom, Francesca Caprino, Elena Laudanna (accepted) Developing Scenarios for Robot Assisted Play Informed by User Panels and Field Trials. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies IJHCS, accepted.

Kerstin Dautenhahn, Chrystopher L. Nehaniv, Michael L. Walters, Ben Robins, Hatice Kose-Bagci, N. Assif Mirza, Michael Blow (2009 in press) KASPAR - A Minimally Expressive Humanoid Robot for Human-Robot Interaction Research. to appear in Special Issue on "Humanoid Robots" for Applied Bionics and Biomechanics, published by Taylor and Francis.

JoshuaWainer, Ester Ferrari, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Ben Robins (2009 in press) The effectiveness of using a robotics class to foster collaboration among groups of children with autism in an exploratory study. Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, Special issue on "Design for Social Interaction through Physical Play" (in press)

Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn (2007) Encouraging social interaction skills in children with autism playing with robots: A case study evaluation of triadic interactions involving children with autism, other people (peers and adults) and a robotic toy. ENFANCE, Vol 59(1) Jan-Mar 2007, pp 72-81, UNIVERSITAIRES DE FRANCE

A. Billard, B. Robins, K. Dautenhahn, J. Nadel (2006) Building Robota, a Mini-Humanoid Robot for the Rehabilitation of Children with Autism . RESNA Assistive Technology Journal.

Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Janek Dubowsky (2006), Does appearance matter in the interaction of children with autism with a humanoid robot? Interaction Studies 7:3, pp. 479-512

Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Rene te Boekhorst. and Aude Billard (2005), Robotic assistants in therapy and education of children with autism: Can a small humanoid robot help encourage social interaction skills? Universal Access in the Information Society (UAIS), Vol 4(2) special edition, Springer- Verlag,

Ben Robins, Paul Dickerson, Penny Stribling and Kerstin Dautenhahn (2004) Robot-mediated joint attention in children with autism: A case study in robot-human interaction, Interaction Studies 5:2, pp. 161-198

Conference Proceedings:

Ester Ferari, Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn (2009) Therapeutic and educational objectives in Robot Assisted Play for children with autism. 18th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 09) September 2009, Toyama, Japan

Ester Ferari, Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn (2009) Robot as a Social Mediator - a Play Scenario Implementation with Children with Autism. 8th international Conference on Interaction Design and Children, IDC09 -Workshop on Creative Interactive Play for Disabled Children , Como, Italy, June 3-5 2009

Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Paul Dickerson, (2009) From Isolation to Communication: A Case Study Evaluation of Robot Assisted Play for Children with Autism with a Minimally Expressive Humanoid Robot, Proc. the Second International Conferences on Advances in Computer-Human Interactions, ACHI 09, February 1-7, 2009 - Cancun, Mexico
Josh Wainer, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Ben Robins (2008) Using robots to foster collaboration among groups of children with autism in an after-school class setting: An exploratory study. Proc. of 1st Workshop on Design for Social Interaction through Physical Play at the 2nd International conference on Fun and Games, 22-24f October 2008, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Ben Robins, Ester Ferrari, Kerstin Dautenhahn (2008) Developing Scenarios for Robot Assisted Play. Proc. the 17th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, (RO-MAN 2008), 1-3 August 2008, Munich , Germany.

B. Robins, K. Dautenhahn, R. te Boekhorst, C. L. Nehaniv (2008) Behaviour Delay and Robot Expressiveness in Child-Robot Interactions: A User Study on Interaction Kinesics. Proc. ACM/IEEE 3rd International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2008). 12-15 March 2008, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Serenella Besio, Silvia Dini,Ester Ferrari, Ben Robins (2007) Critical Factors Involved in Using Interactive Robots for Play Activities of Children with Disabilities Proc. The 9th European Conference for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe (AAATE 2007) , 3-5 October, San-Sebastian, Spain.

Ben Robins, Nuno Otero, Ester Ferrari, Kerstin Dautenhahn (2007) Eliciting Requirements for a Robotic Toy for Children with Autism - Results from User Panels. Proc. the 16th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, (RO-MAN 2007), 26-29 August 2007, Jeju island, Korea.

Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn (2006) The Role of the Experimenter in HRI Research - a Case Study Evaluation of Children with Autism Interacting with a Robotic Toy. Proc. The 15th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN06), Haftield, UK.

Megan Davis , Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Christopher Nehaniv Stuart Powell (2005), A comparison of interactive and robotic systems in therapy and education for children with autism. In proc. Assistive Technology from Virtuality to Reality - 8th European Conference for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe AAATE05, Lille , France , 6-9 September, 2005.

Ben Robins, Paul Dickerson, Penny Stribling and Kerstin Dautenhahn (2005), Robots as embodied beings - Interactionally sensitive body movements in interactions among autistic children and a robot. In proc. 14th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication -RO-MAN05, Nashville , USA , 13-15 August 2005.

Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Janek Dubowsky (2005), Robots as Isolators or Mediators for Children with Autism? A Cautionary Tale, Proc. AISB05: Social Intelligence and Interaction in Animals, Robots and Agents, 12-15 April 2005, Hatfield, UK.

Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Rene te Boekhorst, Aude Billard (2004), Robots as Assistive Technology - Does Appearance Matter?, Proc. IEEE Ro-man 2004, 13th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication September 20-22, 2004 Kurashiki , Okayama Japan. This paper won the best paper award at the 14th IEEE RO-MAN 2005 international workshop.

Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Janek Dubowski (2004), Investigating Autistic Children's Attitudes Towards Strangers with the Theatrical Robot - A New Experimental Paradigm in Human-Robot Interaction Studies, Proc. IEEE Ro-man 2004, 13th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication September 20-22, 2004 Kurashiki, Okayama Japan.

Kerstin Dautenhahn, Iain Werry, Aude Billard, Ben Robins, Tamie Salter (2003), Robots That Autistic Children Can Play With Proc.The 7^th international Congress Autism Europe Lisboa 2003. November 14-17 , 2003 Lisbon , Portugal .

Others:

Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn. (2004), Interacting with robots: Can we encourage social interaction skills in children with autism? ACM SIGACCESS Accessibility and Computing archive Issue 80, pp 6-12, ACM Press, New York, USA, September 2004.

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Invited Talks & Other Academic Activities:

Invited speaker at WorldORT seminar "Robots in Schools" - 8th International Annual Hatter Seminar, November 2009, London, UK.

Organising a tutorial at IEEE RO-MAN 2009 on "Developing assistive technologies for children and adults with special needs: A user-centred approach", together with Prof. Kerstin Dautenhahn, Prof. Kazuyoshi Wada and Prof. Patrizia Marti., September 2009, Toyama, Japan

Invited speaker at a seminar for professional staff at the program for Children and Young People at Anna Freud Centre, September 2009, London, UK.

Organised a special session on " "The use of robots in play for children with disabilities “, together with Kersin Dautenhahn, at the 11th IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, ICORR’09, 23-26 June 2009, Kyoto, Japan.

Invited speaker at HANDIMATICA 2008 - the 7th National Exhibition-Conference on Information Technologies for the Integration of People with Disabilities, 27-29 November 2008, ASPHI Foundation, Bolonga, Italy.
Invited speaker at the 3rd International Symposium on "Autism Along Lifespan – New Treatment Horizons", 27-28 February 2008, The Institute for Child Development, Shiba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel.
Invited Speaker at a seminar for professional staff at Marlborough Family Service , North London NHS foundation Trust - January 2008 , London, UK.

Organised a special session on "Learning and Interaction in Children with Autism", together with Kersin Dautenhahn, at the 6th IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning, ICDL2007, 11-13 July 2007, London, UK

Organised a special session on "Robot assisted play", together with Kerstin Dautenhahn, at the 16th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, RO-MAN 2007, 26-29 August 2007, Jeju island, Korea

Organised a tutorial "Autism and Affective-Social Computing" together with Rana el Kaliouby, Rosalind W. Picard, and Kersin Dautenhahn at the second International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII2007) 12-14 September 2007, Lisbon, Portugal.

Invited Lecturer at a seminar at Aalborg University, March 2007, Esbjerg, Denmark

Invited speaker at the conference "technology for children with ASD" 6th October 2006 , Coventry University, Coventry, UK.

Invited Speaker at the TACT symposium " Thought in Action: a possible new strategy for early diagnosis of autistic disorder", 30 May 2006, Campus Bio-Medico University, Rome, Italy

Invited speaker at the "Seminar on Robotics and Computer Science Technologies for People with Autism", 06 February 2006, University of Palermo, Sicily, Italy.

Invited speaker at the 3rd seminar of the Scottish Autism Research group (SARG) " From socio-cognitive research to information technology for autistic spectrum disorders", 11th November 2005, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland

Invited speaker at the 2nd International Symposium on "New Technologies for Children's Play", 06 October 2005, Maersk Institute for Technology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.

Invited speaker at the Vienna Workshop 2004: "Dimensions of Sociality-Shaping Relationships with Machines", 19-20 November 2004, Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Vienna, Austria.

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Media Coverage:

22nd May 2009: BSN British Satellite News report
7th August 2008: the work with Kaspar and children with autism has been reported online by the Internet department of Bayerischer Rundfunk, a radio and TV-station in Germany (to view click here)
24th May 2008: NHK -Japanese national television, a documentary program dedicated to out our work with children with Autism (click here to watch)
24th April 2008: SAT.1: Planetopia - a science magazine on German television (click here to watch with amature subtitles; Planetopia webpage )
16th August 2007: the work with Kaspar and children with autism has been reported (in German) in Spiegel Online (to view click here)
August 2007 : an article in 'ZEIT Wissen' magazine - a bimonthly magazine of the German daily newspaper Die ZEIT, that covers scientific topics. Schau Mir in Die Augen - article about the use of the Humanoid robot Kaspar with children with Autism. 5/2007, p 86-91. (also available online here)
30th May 2007: Live interviewes on BBC World Service, BBC Radio 4, and BBC Three Counties radio stations..
29th May 2007: BBC1 television news report (click here to watch; BBC webpage)
3^rd August 2003: an article on the Aurora project in Frankfurter Allgemine Sonntagszeitung, 3rd August 2003, p 51,
4^th August 2003: 21.30, 3SAT/ZDF German television station : Neues Spezial - Geniale Teams: Roboter auf dem Weg in die autistische Seele, a documentary on Aurora project
14^th March 2004: SAT.1 : Planetopia - a science magazine on German television, a program on the newest developments in robotics had a brief coverage of our work with robots and autistic children.

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