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Chapter 14ROBOTIC PLAYMATESAnalysing Interactive Competencies of Children withAutism Playing with a Mobile RobotKerstin Dautenhahn 1 , Iain Werry 2 , John Rae 3 ,PaulDickerson 3 ,Penny Stribling 3 , and Bernard Ogden 11 University of Hertfordshire,2 University of Reading,3 University of Surrey RoehamptonAbstractThis chapter discusses two analysis techniques that are being used in order tostudy how children with autism interact with an autonomous, mobile and ‘social’robot in a social setting that also involves adults. A quantitative technique basedon micro-behaviours is outlined. The second technique, Conversation Analysis,provides a qualitative and more detailed investigation of the sequential order,local context and social situatedness of interaction and communication competenciesof children with autism. Preliminary results indicate the facilitating roleof the robot and its potential to be used in autism therapy.1. The Aurora ProjectComputers, virtual environments and robots (e.g. [15], [9]) are increasinglyused as interactive learning environments in autism therapy 1 . Since 1998 theAurora project has studied the development of a mobile, autonomous and ‘socialrobot’ as a therapeutic tool for children with autism, see e.g. [1] for morebackground information. Here, the context in which robot-human interactionsoccur is deliberately playful and ‘social’ (involving adults). In a series of trialswith 8-12 year-old autistic children we established that generally childrenwith autism enjoy interacting with the robotic toy, and show more engagingbehaviour when playing with the robot as opposed to a non-interactive toy[16], [17]. Also, the role of the robot as a social mediator was investigatedin trials with pairs of autistic children. Results showed a spectrum of socialand non-social play and communication that occurred in robot-child and child-