Robot Play for All. Developing Toys and Games for Disability

This book is born to collect the experiences done in more than ten years of development of robotic games for all, and to share them not only with the scientific community, but with all the people (care givers, parents, makers, designers, players) that may be interested to explore this way of exploiting technology to improve the life of children with disabilities and people at large. The play experience is fundamental for everybody, and autonomous robots give the possibility to explore new ways to play where the device is no longer immaterial, but tri-dimensional enabling a relationship through the body, and no longer passive, but can actively participate to the play experience. This new dimension opens new ways of playing that rely on the real, physical world, and integrates the possibilities given by the new technologies, including Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. A boost to the development of this experience has been given by the EU COST Action “LUDI: play for children with disabilities”, where hundreds of people from tens of countries and different experiences and backgrounds met together to share knowledge and produce documents and books to support the development and the adoption of play as a mean to develop and integrate people with disabilities. Some LUDI efforts were also dedicated to technology and robots, and contributed to further develop the already ongoing activities in our universities. This book is intended as a reference both to what has been done up to now in many contexts and countries, and to what could be done by exploiting the technology on the basis of a deeper knowledge on the users’ needs. Together with a strong background on play, disability and technology, many experiences are reported to make aware of issues and potential solutions, with the aim of giving to all the stakeholders at least a good introduction to the many possibilities to develop robot-based play activities. What is presented here considers people with disabilities, but it is valid for any situation where robots could be used to play, and it aims at supporting the development of inclusive play experiences that anybody can enjoy.