Robohub.org
 

Robotics tutor for primary school children

by
04 November 2016



share this:
Frame of the tutoring experience of the student with low motivation and high competence. Reproduced with permission from the parents of the children. Courtesy of Dr Imbernon Cuadrado

Frame of the tutoring experience of the student with low motivation and high competence. Reproduced with permission from the parents of the children. Courtesy of Dr Imbernon Cuadrado

By: Ian Salter

The use of robotic tutors in primary school classrooms is one step closer according to research recently published in the open access journal Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience.

Dr Imbernòn Cuadrado and his co-workers at the Department of Artificial Intelligence in Madrid have developed an integrated computational architecture (ARTIE) for use with software applications in schools.

“The main goal of our work was to design a system that can detect the emotional state of primary school children interacting with educational software and make pedagogic interventions with a robot tutor that can ultimately improve the learning experience,” says Luis Imbernòn Cuadrado.

Online educational resources are becoming increasingly common in the classroom, although they have not taken into sufficient account that the learning ability of primary school children is particularly sensitive to their emotional state. This is perhaps where robot tutors can step in to assist teachers.

Rather than focusing on specific emotions, the researchers first identified three cognitive states (concentrating, distracted and inactive) known to influence the course of learning.  Keyboard strokes and mouse actions of children using educational software were used to predict which of these cognitive states the child is experiencing and subsequently linked to an algorithm that chooses the correct form of pedagogic intervention. These could be words and gestures of encouragement or attempts to raise interest and motivation for a specific learning objective, all of which can be delivered by a robot tutor.

In the Frontiers research article, Dr. Imbernón Cuadrado and co-workers describe an example of a robotic tutor platform, MONICA, which integrates the educational software Scratch to a commercially available robot through the computational architecture developed in their paper.

Reproduced with permission from the parents of the children. Courtesy of Dr Imbernon Cuadrado

Reproduced with permission from the parents of the children. Courtesy of Dr Imbernon Cuadrado

MONICA was tested out on two primary school volunteers known to have different cognitive learning states. Whilst the children enjoyed having a robot guide their learning, and preferred it to working alone, they both felt they would have learned more with their normal teacher, despite feeling more relaxed in the presence of a robot tutor.

“Our first prototype was designed to demonstrate that the architecture works in detecting simplified emotional states,” says Dr. Imbernón Cuadrado. “The next step will be to implement methods for detecting a more complex range of emotions with cameras and microphones and to test the longer term impact of robot tutors on children’s learning curves.”

It seems however that robot tutors are not ready to replace school teachers just yet.  “We consider that robot tutors could have an effective support role to play in the primary school classroom in helping children reach their specific learning objectives,” concludes Dr. Imbernón Cuadrado.

Click here to read the research paper


If you liked this article, you may also want to read these other articles by Frontiers:

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.



tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,


Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience is devoted to promoting theoretical modeling of brain function and fostering interdisciplinary interactions between theoretical and experimental neuroscience...
Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience is devoted to promoting theoretical modeling of brain function and fostering interdisciplinary interactions between theoretical and experimental neuroscience...





Related posts :



Open Robotics Launches the Open Source Robotics Alliance

The Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF) is pleased to announce the creation of the Open Source Robotics Alliance (OSRA), a new initiative to strengthen the governance of our open-source robotics so...

Robot Talk Episode 77 – Patricia Shaw

In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Patricia Shaw from Aberystwyth University all about home assistance robots, and robot learning and development.
18 March 2024, by

Robot Talk Episode 64 – Rav Chunilal

In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Rav Chunilal from Sellafield all about robotics and AI for nuclear decommissioning.
31 December 2023, by

AI holidays 2023

Thanks to those that sent and suggested AI and robotics-themed holiday videos, images, and stories. Here’s a sample to get you into the spirit this season....
31 December 2023, by and

Faced with dwindling bee colonies, scientists are arming queens with robots and smart hives

By Farshad Arvin, Martin Stefanec, and Tomas Krajnik Be it the news or the dwindling number of creatures hitting your windscreens, it will not have evaded you that the insect world in bad shape. ...
31 December 2023, by

Robot Talk Episode 63 – Ayse Kucukyilmaz

In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Ayse Kucukyilmaz from the University of Nottingham about collaboration, conflict and failure in human-robot interactions.
31 December 2023, by





Robohub is supported by:




Would you like to learn how to tell impactful stories about your robot or AI system?


scicomm
training the next generation of science communicators in robotics & AI


©2024 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence


 












©2021 - ROBOTS Association