Mobile Robots Engaging Children in Learning

Mobile robots are machines that can move and act in the real world, making it possible to generate a multitude of interplay situations, which can engage children and encourage interaction in a variety of different ways. Mobility, appearance, interaction modalities (e.g., sound, light, moving parts) and behaviour (predetermined and adaptive) can all have an influence in sustaining the interest (and therefore learning) of typically developing children or children with specific deficits such as autism. This paper summarizes findings from two of our on-going projects, one using a spherical mobile robot and the other using a humanoid-like robot toy.