A tricycle-style teleoperational interface that remotely controls a robot for classroom children

Abstract

We consider the application of telepresence robots for supporting childhood education. One challenge here is to develop a teleoperational robot system that can be manipulated by children themselves. There are two requirements for realizing such a system. First, the system has to be sufficiently intuitive so that child users can control it without the need for detailed instructions. Second, the control of the system should have some amount of enjoyment so that child users do not get bored. To satisfy these requirements, we introduce a tricycle-style teleoperational interface that remotely controls a robot. We also report field tests that are currently being conducted at English learning schools for children in Japan.