Robovie in class, Higashihikari Elementary School
Robots are no strangers to the classroom. In the last decade, we have seen them being used as teachers (KIST Engkey in 19 schools in Daegu South Korea) or adapted for use as telepresence devices for students that cannot attend school (Vgo used by Devon Carrow who suffers from debilitating allergies). Now students at Higashihikari Elementary School (Kyoto, Japan) will have a new robotic classmate from ATR (Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International) that will participate in class as a social experiment for a full school year (14 months). ‘Robovie’ started attending class on February 5 (2013) where he will collect data from 119 fifth graders and their teachers (he was pre-programmed with both their facial photos and voiceprints for identification) as a way to improve the robots interaction naturally with multiple people. The 47-inch tall autonomous robot was programmed with the entire knowledge of the school’s fifth grade science book as well as some conversational skills equivalent to that of a 5-year old for student interaction. On Robovie’s first day of school he was asked by the teacher if he knew ‘what a wound-up copper wire was called’, which he replied ‘A copper coil. It’s part of the motors that move my body’. For the rest of the day he was situated at the back of the room where he proceeded to identify the facial features of the students as well as recording their movements. It is ATR’s hope that by collecting the data (used at the school based on the amount of interaction it can receive in one location) they will be able to ‘bridge the social gap’ between robots and humans as more and more robots are integrated into jobs such as nursing, secretarial jobs and even babysitting.
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