Educational system with the android robot SAYA and field trial

Abstract

Communication robots are hard to interact with humans autonomously in everyday environment due to lack of intelligence even though robots can perform certainly only in limited environments and limited situations. However, since intelligence of robots is handled by an operator, tele-operated robots are useful to investigate functions required for robots and effects of robots in real-environment. This paper proposes an educational system with a tele-operated android robot that has human-like appearance. The developed android robot, named SAYA, is able to express human-like facial expressions and performs some communicative functions with its head and eye movements, and it is utilized as a roll of a teacher in the proposed educational system. In addition, SAYA's utterances and behaviors are controlled remotely by an operator so that it is able to not only conduct the class but also interact with students. A field trial was carried out at an elementary school, and SAYA conducted the class concerning the principle of leverage as a topic of science classes while interacting with students. Also, how it affected students' interest and motivation was investigated. As results, the trial verified that some students became interested in science class more than before the trial, and its positive effects in educational field, especially elementary schools, were verified.