William Dawson Undergraduate Dissertation 2016/17

Robot Teachers

Supervised by A.Sharkey

Abstract

In this project an experiment will be done to see if using robots as teachers is effective and specifically if having the robot attempt to imitate a human teacher is effective. A NAO robot will be used to teach lectures 1 on 1 with different people, and these people will be quizzed on what they remember afterward. The main variable that will be changed is the attitude the robot gives off through its speech. It will have 3 different attitudes; stern, friendly and robotic; to test how people perceive these attitudes coming from a robot. Multiple experiments will be done with each attitude and an average of the responses will be taken.

In this paper there is an introduction which outlines the project's original setting. A literature review that researches surrounding papers and articles on the subject. An analysis of the requirements for the project and what they aim to achieve. A detailed description of how the experiment is being designed. A section on how the experiment was implemented and any difficulties faced. A results section that also performs tests on the results and a section for any conclusions that can be made.