Human-Robot-Collaboration (HRC): Social Robots as Teaching Assistants for Training Activities in Small Groups

Can we find real value for educational social robots in the very near future? We argue that the answer is yes. Specifically, in a classroom we observed, we identified a common gap: the instructor divided the class into small groups to work on a learning activity and could not address all their questions simultaneously. The purpose of this study was to examine whether social robots can assist in this scenario. In particular, we were interested to find whether a physical robot serves this purpose better than other technologies such as tablets. Benefits and drawbacks of the robot facilitator are discussed.