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Immersive Telepresence Framework for Remote Educational Scenarios

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Learning and Collaboration Technologies. Human and Technology Ecosystems (HCII 2020)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 12206))

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Abstract

Social robots have an enormous potential for educational applications, allowing cognitive outcomes similar to those with human involvement. Enabling instructors and learners to directly control a social robot and immersively interact with their students and peers opens up new possibilities for effective lesson delivery and better participation in the classroom.

This paper proposes the use of immersive technologies to promote engagement in remote educational settings involving robots. In particular, this research introduces a telepresence framework for the location-independent operation of a social robot using a virtual reality headset and controllers. Using the QTrobot as a platform, the framework supports the direct and immersive control via different interaction modes including motion, emotion and voice output. Initial tests involving a large audience of educators and students validate the acceptability and applicability to interactive classroom scenarios.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://www.oculus.com/rift/.

  2. 2.

    https://luxai.com/qtrobot-for-research/.

  3. 3.

    https://wiki.ros.org/rosbridge_suite/.

  4. 4.

    https://github.com/AIRobolab-unilu.

  5. 5.

    http://www.researchersdays.lu/.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Thomas Sauvage and Julien Sanchez from the University of Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier, who assisted in this research in the context of an internship at the University of Luxembourg.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Luxembourg, Av. de la Fonte 6, 4364, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg

    Jean Botev

  2. University of León, Campus de Vegazana S/N, 24071, León, Spain

    Francisco J. Rodríguez Lera

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  1. Jean Botev
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Correspondence to Jean Botev .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus

    Panayiotis Zaphiris

  2. Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus

    Andri Ioannou

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Botev, J., Rodríguez Lera, F.J. (2020). Immersive Telepresence Framework for Remote Educational Scenarios. In: Zaphiris, P., Ioannou, A. (eds) Learning and Collaboration Technologies. Human and Technology Ecosystems. HCII 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12206. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50506-6_26

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50506-6_26

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-50505-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-50506-6

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