Engaging Learners in Dialogue Interactivity Development for Mobile Robots

The use of robots in educational and STEM engagement activities is widespread. In this paper we describe a system developed for engaging learners with the design of dialogue-based interactivity for mobile robots. With an emphasis on a web-based solution that is grounded in both a real robot system and a real application domain — a museum guide robot — our intent is to enhance the benefits to both driving research through potential user-group engagement, and enhancing motivation by providing a real application context for the learners involved. The proposed system is designed to be highly scalable to both many simultaneous users and to users of different age groups, and specifically enables direct deployment of implemented systems onto both real and simulated robots. Our observations from preliminary events, involving both children and adults, support the view that the system is both usable and successful in supporting engagement with the dialogue interactivity problem presented to the participants, with indications that this engagement can persist over an extended period of time.