Robotic Technologies in ADHD Care: Literature Review

• Published in: IEEE access Vol. 10; pp. 608 - 625
• Main Authors: Berrezueta-Guzman, Jonnathan, Robles-Bykbaev, Vladimir Espartaco, Pau, Ivan, Pesantez-Aviles, Fernando, Martin-Ruiz, Maria-Luisa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway IEEE 2022; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: ADHD; Anxiety disorders; Artificial intelligence; ASD; Assistive robots; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Augmented reality; Autism; Brain-computer interfaces; brain–computer interface; Dementia; educational robots; Human-robot interaction; Humanoid robots; intelligent robots; Internet of Things; Literature reviews; Medical treatment; mobile robots; NDD; New technology; rehabilitation robotics; robotic assistance; Robotics; Robots; Scientific papers; Service robots
• ISSN: 2169-3536; 2169-3536
• DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3137082

Robotics has made it possible to change and improve many support processes for vulnerable people in different settings. In recent years, its use has been oriented toward supporting therapeutic interventions of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD), including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This review of the literature highlights how advances in robotics have evolved in different scenarios of ADHD treatment, its collaboration with other emerging technologies, its results, its limitations, and the research challenges for the future development of robotics in the field of supporting children with ADHD. The authors conducted a literature review based on the location of keywords 'robotics' and several NNDs such as 'ADHD', 'Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)', 'cerebral palsy', and 'dementia' in titles, abstracts, and introduction of scientific articles in the Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) database. The reviewed literature was classified according to the type of therapy supported by the robots, the type of robot and the associated technologies. From this analysis, we can solve the research question: Which types of robots have the potential for specific applications in ADHD treatment? Furthermore, this article shows that despite favorable technical results, robotic technologies that support ADHD therapies require significant improvements in terms of scalability, human-machine interaction, and treatment and processing of acquired information to be applied effectively in real-world therapies. The most significant research challenges are proposed to drive research efforts to develop new approaches to enable robotic assistants to participate in ADHD therapies.