Robot is designed to teach social skills to children with autism

A robot that helps children with autism learn to take turns and initiate play with others is the focus of a program at the Robotics Research Lab at the University of Southern California. "Bandit," a child-sized robot, has been designed to maintain the look of a machine so as not to be too intimidating, and has a human-like face designed to engender empathy among children with autism. "It was a balance that we had to find," Maja Mataric, co-director of the lab, said. Los Angeles Times (10/17)  http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-autism-robots-20111017,0,5798122.story