Robot Assistance in Playful Environment - User Trials and Results

From a developmental and educational perspective, play is a "natural" way in which children learn in an enjoyable manner. Through play, juveniles interact with their physical and social worlds and 'construct' their mental world. This paper describes a dedicated robot system realized by Austrian Research Centers GmbH - ARC, which supports children with severe physical impairments for interaction with standard toys. Beside of a description of the robot system the paper gives first results from user trials and outlines future development.