A new study suggests that robots can be programmed to provide instructions for students in classrooms. It also reported that robots can be equipped with special teaching skills that can be used to support instructors in educational environments.
In a study published in the Science Robotics journal, researchers believe that the new technique could bring great benefits for the teachers loaded with tasks in their classes. It could also bring benefits for students, as many previous studies found that robots working alongside teachers in classrooms may help improve the educational process, the German news agency reported.
The researchers also suggest that this experience may open the door for expanding robotics applications in the different social activities.
During the experiment, a human teacher controlled the robot, teaching it how to help young pupils in an educational activity, and it was then able to support the children in the same activity autonomously.
The study was coordinated by the University of Plymouth, as part of a wider project to develop social robots for a range of education and health settings, in cooperation with the University of Lincoln and the University of the West of England.
The researchers see this experiment is of great importance in developing interaction mechanisms between humans and robots in the future, because it goes beyond controlling robots remotely to teaching them by interacting directly with humans.
