Learning waste Recycling by playing with a Social Robot
- Resource Type
- Conference
- Authors
- Castellano, Giovanna; Carolis, Berardina De; Macchiarulo, Nicola; Rossano, Veronica
- Source
- 2019 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics (SMC) Systems, Man and Cybernetics (SMC), 2019 IEEE International Conference on. :3805-3810 Oct, 2019
- Subject
- Communication, Networking and Broadcast Technologies
Components, Circuits, Devices and Systems
General Topics for Engineers
Power, Energy and Industry Applications
Robotics and Control Systems
Signal Processing and Analysis
Transportation
Robots
Games
Recycling
Education
Image classification
Task analysis
Image recognition
- Language
- ISSN
- 2577-1655
In this paper we investigate the use of a social robot as an interface to a serious game aiming to train kids in how to recycle materials correctly. Serious games are mostly used to induce motivations and engagement in users and support knowledge transfer during playing. They are especially effective when the goal of the game concerns behavior change. In addition, social robots have been used effectively in educational settings to engage children in the learning process. Following this trend, we designed a serious game in which the social robot Pepper plays with a child to teach him to correctly recycle the materials. To endow the robot with the capability of detecting and classifying the waste material we developed an image recognition module based on a Convolutional Neural Network. Preliminary experimental results show that the implementation of a serious game about recycling into the Pepper robot improves its social behavior. The use of real objects as waste items during the game turns out to be a successful approach not only for perceived learning effectiveness but also for engagement of the children.