Autism spectrum disorders are a group of lifelong disabilities that affect people's ability to
communicate and to understand social cues. Research into applying robots as therapy tools
has shown that robots seem to improve engagement and elicit novel social behaviors from
people (particularly children and teenagers) with autism. Robot therapy for autism has been
explored as one of the first application domains in the field of socially assistive robotics
(SAR), which aims to develop robots that assist people with special needs through social�…