Toward Empathetic Robotic Dogs for Joint Attention Support in Autism Intervention

Joint attention is a core component of social communication and is frequently impaired in individuals with autism. This work presents a platform validation of an emotionally expressive quadruped robot dog with a custom pan--tilt head and on-device facial emotion recognition, and asks participants whether emotion-driven reactions make joint-attention cues clearer and more engaging than gaze-only behavior. In a within-subjects pilot with six neurotypical adults, we compared (A) face tracking only and (B) face tracking plus emotion recognition and empathetic reactions. Participants generally found the robot's directional cues easy to interpret, reported effective emotional contagion, and expressed strong willingness to interact again, despite low perceived realism. Perceived safety/comfort was mixed for some users, and subjective "shared attention" was inconsistent across participants, suggesting a need for smoother and more predictable gaze and motion timing. These early results help surface design constraints and failure modes before future studies with autistic participants.