The AutARK project, which started on 01.01.2023, is a research project at the Technical University of Dresden funded by the German Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS). It has a duration of three years and employs four people. The main goal of the project is to improve and maintain the earning capacity and activity of people on the autism spectrum in the primary labor market. This is to be achieved by developing technical assistance systems that can be used in everyday working life.
As part of the project, an innovative, adaptive filter system is being developed that protects people on the autism spectrum from stimulus overload and thus from stress and excessive demands in the workplace. A special active noise cancellation method will be implemented that captures the context of a specific conversational situation and adaptively filters out irrelevant signals. In addition, the project aims to support autistic people in verbal conversation situations with the help of wearable devices.
Another focus of the project is on improving task and schedule planning through haptic, natural interaction modalities to enable low-disturbance and structured work. In the AutARK project, the human-centered development of a model system is planned, which will be tested with AI-based technical approaches by autistic people in a versatile way in everyday work.