The Future of Robot-Assisted Learning in the Home

Abstract

Imagine a home system where a child can have an educational assistant with them at all times - a helper to ensure they understand and are understood. The concept of robots interacting with humans is not new and was predicted in many movies, novels and on television long before the technology was available. With the robot revolution upon us, small-scale household robots are becoming more accepted and widespread. The majority of current household robot applications take the role of service robots in the home, undertaking menial tasks. However, their use in education has great potential. With human-robot interface (HRI) technology this educational scenario is not only possible, but also probable. In the future, household robots will provide the physical interface and mobility for these home-based e-learning systems. It is also envisaged that ubiquitous robots, which consist of embedded, mobile and software robots will became essential in home network systems. In this paper we anticipate that the software robot, a type of virtual robot, will become the core of many robot-based e-learning systems which will be integrated with household robots. These e-learning software robots can traverse time and space, and assist the child at any time, any place and connect to any device through a network. In this paper, we discuss the use of home-robots, HRI and software robot-assisted learning which constitutes an e-learning system for young children, within the home environment.