A friendly face in robotics

Abstract

We have developed a way to encourage schools and other institutions to introduce robotics to very young students in their core curriculum. Many schools are understandably nervous about bringing new technology, especially one perceived to be as complicated as robotics, into their classrooms. Our work involves using Sony's AIBO Entertainment Robot in a non-threatening and attractive way so that children can interact with it using two different approaches: a "storybook" program and a "listener" program.