Dominance in Visual Space of ASD Children Using Multi-Robot Joint Attention Integrated Distributed Imitation System

The focus of this research is to study: 1) the distribution of joint attention of autistic (ASD) children in their left and right visual space, 2) the corresponding dominance of either left or right hemisphere of brain using electroencephalography (EEG), and 3) the relationship between the dominance of visual space and hemisphere of brain. The proposed multi-robot system includes sequential and simultaneous actuations of robots dealing with single and multi-robot communication. Results indicate that most of the autistic children initiate joint attention from right to left vision space. Similarly, for imitation, robot at right visual space is imitated and focused more. These findings are also supported by the results obtained from the dominance of brain and number of eye contacts. Eight participants, five males and three females, participated in this research. Six participants belong to minimal while two belong to mild case on autism spectrum. Minimal cases of autism indicated proper dominance of either left or right visual space and hence the respective dominance of hemispheres of brain too. While mild cases of autism showed balanced performance in visual space but distinguishable dominance of hemispheres of brain. The overall average followed imitation accuracy for robot at right visual space is 83.49 % while for robot at left visual space is 61.53 %. Similarly, overall average eye contacts with robot at right visual space are 16.47 and for robot at left visual space are 14.95 per minute. Power spectral density (PSD) values of EEG data also indicate the dominance of right hemisphere of brain. F value is 2.93, F-critical value 4.60, and p-value is 0.108.