Can You Dance? A Study of Child–Robot Interaction and Emotional Response Using the NAO Robot

This retrospective study presents and summarizes our long-term efforts in the popularization of robotics, engineering, and artificial intelligence (STEM) using the NAO humanoid robot. By a conservative estimate, over a span of 8 years, we engaged at least a couple of thousand participants: approxima...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Multimodal technologies and interaction 2023-09, Vol.7 (9), p.85
Main Author:	Podpečan, Vid
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Adolescents Aerobics Age groups Artificial intelligence Awards & honors Children & youth child–robot interaction Collaboration Demographics Education Elementary school students Emotion recognition Emotional factors emotional response Games Gender Humanoid human–robot interaction Learning disabilities NAO non-verbal communication Pedagogy Physical therapy Preschool children Robotics Robotics industry Robots Science STEM Technology application Tutoring
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Summary:	This retrospective study presents and summarizes our long-term efforts in the popularization of robotics, engineering, and artificial intelligence (STEM) using the NAO humanoid robot. By a conservative estimate, over a span of 8 years, we engaged at least a couple of thousand participants: approximately 70% were preschool children, 15% were elementary school students, and 15% were teenagers and adults. We describe several robot applications that were developed specifically for this task and assess their qualitative performance outside a controlled research setting, catering to various demographics, including those with special needs (ASD, ADHD). Five groups of applications are presented: (1) motor development activities and games, (2) children’s games, (3) theatrical performances, (4) artificial intelligence applications, and (5) data harvesting applications. Different cases of human–robot interactions are considered and evaluated according to our experience, and we discuss their weak points and potential improvements. We examine the response of the audience when confronted with a humanoid robot featuring intelligent behavior, such as conversational intelligence and emotion recognition. We consider the importance of the robot’s physical appearance, the emotional dynamics of human–robot engagement across age groups, the relevance of non-verbal cues, and analyze drawings crafted by preschool children both before and after their interaction with the NAO robot.
ISSN:	2414-4088 2414-4088