Social robots for automated remote instruction

Abstract

Instructional video content is being created in many different languages. A robot is a generic interface that can deliver translated lecture content in a person's space. In an exploratory study, 40 participants viewed a lecture delivered by a robot lecturer that was either located in front of them or displayed on a screen, in either a real-world environment or while wearing an immersive virtual reality headset. Initial results did not find differences in test performance or in how much participants liked a robot lecturer that was in front of them compared to on a screen, perhaps because the robot spoke the lecture but did not interact with the person.