Hello roboticists, I will be presenting the talk for my preliminary exam tomorrow, Wednesday, April 26th at 2 PM. Everyone is welcome to attend in person or virtually, per details below. *Title:* Movement as a Human Right: Scaffolding Child Physical Activity with Assistive Robots *Date & Time:* Wednesday, April 26th, 2:00 pm *Location:* Rogers 226 *Zoom Link:* https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Foregonstate.zoom.us%2Fj%2F95889417593%3Fpwd%3DZzlFUDF3TWR5WSs2SDBsTmUrbWt0UT09&data=05%7C01%7Crobotics-seminar%40engr.oregonstate.edu%7C26e8ebf8e4534ceaae2508db45bc8107%7Cce6d05e13c5e4d6287a84c4a2713c113%7C0%7C0%7C638180448139244157%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2FNbM%2B6oMyvuQPyrqtpOGW12UwiPEx7duqC2W7uTokt8%3D&reserved=0 <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Furl%3Fq%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Foregonstate.zoom.us%2Fj%2F95889417593%3Fpwd%253DZzlFUDF3TWR5WSs2SDBsTmUrbWt0UT09%26sa%3DD%26source%3Dcalendar%26ust%3D1682874673078643%26usg%3DAOvVaw1WbzirKSHwxYmUrxjpHgMa&data=05%7C01%7Crobotics-seminar%40engr.oregonstate.edu%7C26e8ebf8e4534ceaae2508db45bc8107%7Cce6d05e13c5e4d6287a84c4a2713c113%7C0%7C0%7C638180448139244157%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=0EY6fzaxdFwK6ElZj1AIeyt0CdVCfHU%2BIahMarHGvfE%3D&reserved=0> Password: 953686 *Abstract:* Despite the numerous benefits of physical activity, children across the globe are not meeting the recommendations set by health organizations and children with motor disabilities lag behind their peers without disabilities. Assistive robots show promise for impacting children's engagement with physical activity and movement but few works have analyzed the long-term effects of using an assistive robot in this context for children without disabilities and children with motor disabilities. The work in this thesis aims to address this gap by building a stronger base of evidence and experience through both short- and long-term user studies that expands the field's understanding of child-robot interactions, both for children without disabilities and children with motor disabilities. Additionally, we detail methods and evaluations of robot autonomy during child-robot interactions and propose the construction of models of child engagement based on thermal imaging data. This work has four contributions: The first contribution is an iterative design and evaluation of robot reward hardware for child-robot interactions. The second contribution is empirical evidence demonstrating that a mobile assistive robot with different levels of autonomy can encourage young children to engage in physical activity in short- and long-term interactions. The third contribution is initial and ongoing evidence demonstrating that an assistive robot can be coupled with physical therapy technologies to keep a child with a motor disability engaged and moving during interventions. The fourth contribution is proposed modeling of child engagement through thermal imaging. *Advisor:* Dr. Naomi T. Fitter *Committee Members:* Dr. Geoff A. Hollinger, Dr. Julie A. Adams, Dr. Samuel W. Logan, Dr. Christopher A. Sanchez Thank you! Ameer