How to train your DragonBot: Socially assistive robots for teaching children about nutrition through play

Author

Short, Elaine ; Swift-Spong, Katelyn ; Greczek, Jillian ; Ramachandran, Aditi ; Litoiu, Alexandru ; Grigore, Elena Corina ; Feil-Seifer, David ; Shuster, Samuel ; Jin Joo Lee ; Shaobo Huang ; Levonisova, Svetlana ; Litz, Sarah ; Li, Jie ; Ragusa, Gisele ;

Author_Institution

Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

fYear

2014

fDate

25-29 Aug. 2014

Firstpage

924

Lastpage

929

Abstract

This paper describes an extended (6-session) interaction between an ethnically and geographically diverse group of 26 first-grade children and the DragonBot robot in the context of learning about healthy food choices. We find that children demonstrate a high level of enjoyment when interacting with the robot, and a statistically significant increase in engagement with the system over the duration of the interaction. We also find evidence of relationship-building between the child and robot, and encouraging trends towards child learning. These results are promising for the use of socially assistive robotic technologies for long-term one-on-one educational interventions for younger children.

Keywords

human-robot interaction; intelligent robots; medical robotics; teaching; DragonBot robot; children teaching; ethnically diverse group; extended interaction; first-grade children; geographically diverse group; healthy food choice learning; long-term one-on-one educational interventions; nutrition; relationship-building; socially assistive robots; younger children; Educational institutions; Pediatrics; Robots; Speech; Time factors; Time measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Robot and Human Interactive Communication, 2014 RO-MAN: The 23rd IEEE International Symposium on

Conference_Location

Edinburgh

Print_ISBN

978-1-4799-6763-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ROMAN.2014.6926371

Filename

6926371