Development of a Social Robot NAR for Children’s Education

Abstract

There are robots aiming to develop cognitive abilities through building and programming, but there are other kind of social robots oriented to education, this paper shows an example of this branch of robots where aspects as anthropomorphism, bidirectional interaction, movement applied to the development of educational robots are explored. The social robot NAR is focused on education of children around 3 to 5 years. The robot is a didactic and interactive tool which purpose is to strengthen acquired knowledge. The main goal is to be able of getting a great interaction child-robot minimizing details through a minimalist but at the same time anthropomorphic design, being able of bidirectional interaction and capable to emulate and communicate basic emotions using movements, sounds, lights and sensors. Based on the results of a completed study applied to technical students and held at “Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas ESPE”, was demonstrated that NAR has a friendly physical appearance, its interaction goes together with its level of Anthropomorphism and gives appropriate answers while interacting. Due the results on this first stage of development is highly encouraging to develop a protocol to improve and expand capabilities of the robot and make a more comprehensive study with infant subjects and education specialist.