NIMAYA: ROBOTS THAT ARE TRANSFORMING THERAPY FOR THE AUTISTIC

In Sanskrit, Nimaya means ‘to create a change,’ which is exactly what this Chennai based startup, Nimaya Innovations, is doing. Founded in 2018, the company has made it its mission to help autistic children become more independent using IoT based robots

- Aaryaa Padhyegurjar

Children with autism and multiple disabilities are more attracted to robots and robotlike features. That’s because robots tend to have a routine. For any task, robots will do the same thing repeatedly, a million times over, using the exact same method. Children respond to that well. This is what Dr Ramya Moorthy, Founder of Nimaya Innovations, realised as she went to about 75 special-needs schools and worked with teachers, special educators, and special organisations.

As a part of her PhD, Dr Moorthy designed about five different robots that can assist children in developing daily life skills and their associated psychomotor and cognitive skills. “During my research, I found a lot of studies that have been done on facial expression, social interaction, and communication. But one of the biggest areas that has not been concentrated upon is psychomotor skills,” says Dr Moorthy.