Robot-Mediated Learning: Exploring School-Deployed Collaborative Robots for Homebound Children

在美国，超过250万儿童在医疗上被限制在家中。他们在社会上被孤立，身体上被隔离，目前的教育做法在很大程度上将他们排除在学校社区之外。远程呈现机器人已经成为支持这些儿童返回当地学校的一种可能手段，然而，尚不清楚在家的儿童如何有效地使用这些机器人进行最佳学习和社会发展体验。该项目的目标是在学校推进机器人介导的学习，并研究合作机器人如何促进最佳的学习体验。研究人员将1）确定在学校使用嵌入式合作机器人的最佳实践和指导方针，以最好地促进学习和社会发展; 2）为在家儿童设计新的包容性界面和控制模式，以使用移动的遥控器; 3）开创新的包容性机器人课程，以支持残疾儿童进入STEM劳动力市场。该项目将在多个领域产生新的知识，包括人机交互，教育和医疗保健。该项目还将通过探索如何使残疾人能够使用移动的遥控机器人来促进科学的进步，包括创造未来机器人系统的新见解，这些系统可以由最终用户动态重新配置，而无需领域专业知识。这项工作将通过对机器人介导的互动的深入了解使社会受益，这种互动可以扩展到其他领域，例如远程医疗，远程保健以及其他在与现实世界社区保持社会联系方面遇到障碍的人。该项目的结果将把有关公共空间中人类操作的合作机器人的社会，教育，财政和道德问题带到最前沿，并探索新的方法来包容在整个社会以及STEM领域中代表性不足的学生。该项目将告知几个关键的研究问题，包括：1）确定机器人介导的学习任务，有助于最佳的学习; 2）创建最佳实践和指导方针，纳入社会规范的日常合作机器人互动; 3）设计新的可访问的，适应性强，可用的控制模式，移动的远程操作的家庭儿童; 4）利用与具体的合作机器人的互动来激发对STEM的兴趣，特别关注医疗家庭儿童和残疾儿童。该项目将采用案例研究的研究方法，探索利益相关者在机器人为媒介的学习经验的相互联系。该项目将包括48个案例研究，每个案例通常由22名参与者组成：一名在家的孩子，一名家长，一名教师，18名同学和一名学校管理人员。 将使用多种数据来源，包括直接观察、半结构化访谈、调查和焦点小组。访谈记录、观察记录和调查答复将进行开放编码，以确定案件内部和案件之间的共性/差异。分析中出现的主题和概念将反复与数据进行比较，以确保其有效性。该研究团队将与居家儿童合作，共同设计可访问和可适应的控制界面，以反映这一人群独特的教育和社会需求。该项目由国家机器人计划2.0资助：无处不在的协作机器人（NRI-2.0）计划，以及学生和教师创新技术体验（ITEST）计划，该计划支持建立对实践的理解的项目，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Over 2.5 million children in the US are medically homebound. They are socially isolated, physically segregated, and current educational practices largely exclude them from their school communities. Telepresence robots have emerged as a possible means to support these children to return to their local schools, however, it is not yet understood how homebound children can effectively use these robots for optimal learning and social development experiences. The goal of this project is to advance robot-mediated learning in schools, and investigate how co-robots can facilitate optimal learning experiences. The investigators will 1) Identify best practices and guidelines for the use of embodied co-robots in schools to best facilitate learning and social development; 2) Design new inclusive interfaces and control modalities for homebound children to use mobile telemanipulators, and 3) Pioneer new inclusive robotics curricula to support children with disabilities entering the STEM workforce. This project will yield new knowledge in multiple fields, including human-robot interaction, education, and healthcare. This project will also promote the progress of science by exploring how to make mobile telemanipulators accessible to people with disabilities, including new insights in the creation of future robot systems that can be dynamically reconfigured by end users without requiring domain expertise. This work will benefit society through insights into robot-mediated interaction which can extend to other domains, such as telemedicine, telehealth, and others who experience barriers to remaining socially connected to their real-world communities. The results of this project will bring to the forefront societal, educational, fiscal, and ethical issues concerning human-operated co-robots in public spaces, and explore new ways to be inclusive of students underrepresented both in society at large as well as in STEM fields. This project will inform several key research questions including: 1) Identifying robot-mediated learning tasks that contribute to optimal learning; 2) Creating best practices and guidelines that incorporate social norms for daily co-robot interactions; 3) Designing new accessible, adaptable, and usable control modalities for mobile telemanipulation for homebound children; 4) Leveraging interaction with an embodied co-robot to motivate interest in STEM, with a particular focus on medically homebound children and children with disabilities. The project will employ a case study research methodology, exploring stakeholder interconnectedness in the robot-mediated learning experience. The project will consist of 48 case studies, where each case will typically consist of 22 participants: a homebound child, a parent, a teacher, 18 classmates, and a school administrator. Multiple sources of data will be used, consisting of direct observations, semi-structured interviews, surveys, and focus groups. Transcripts from interviews, observation notes, and survey responses will undergo open-coding to identify commonalities/differences within and between cases. The themes and concepts that emerge from the analysis will be repeatedly compared with the data to ensure their validity. The research team will work with homebound children to co-design accessible and adaptable control interfaces to reflect the unique educational and social needs of this population.This project is funded by the National Robotics Initiative 2.0: Ubiquitous Collaborative Robots (NRI-2.0) program, and the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.