A Robot Tutor That Encourages Bored Students To Learn

Scientists have developed a new robot teacher that can detect whether children are distracted in class and accordingly respond to encourage them. Researchers at the Department of Artificial Intelligence in Madrid have developed an integrated computational architecture (Artie) for use with software applications in schools. The main goal of this work was to design a system that can detect the emotional state of primary school children interacting with educational software and make pedagogic interventions with a robot tutor that can ultimately improve the learning experience. Rather than focusing on specific emotions, the researchers first identified three cognitive states (concentrating, distracted and inactive) known to influence the course of learning. Keyboard strokes and mouse actions of children using educational software were used to predict which of these cognitive states the child is experiencing and subsequently linked to an algorithm that chooses the correct form of pedagogic intervention. These could be words and gestures of encouragement or attempts to raise interest and motivation for a specific learning objective, all of which can be delivered by a robot tutor.