from the guest editors
Yet Another Robot Application?
O
ver the last several decades,
robotics has consolidated its
leading role in the important
new domain of formal and
informal education. Evidence of its wide
spread acceptance and acknowledgment
of its potential for positively influencing
educational outcomes can be found in
several documents and communications
related to education, such as Directive
93 of 30 November 2009 that was issued
by the Italian Ministry of Education, in
which educational robotics is mentioned
with home automation and laboratory
mathematics as a way to strengthen
scientific and technological culture in
schools. The relevance of robotics to
important trends in privileging science,
technology, engineering, and math
(STEM) education worldwide also
affords our field the chance to dis
ruptively effect change in educational
practices, as outlined in the United
States 2010 Presidential Commissions
report on STEM education.
It is, however, important to set
context. If robotics and automation
increased productivity and relieved
workers from dangerous, dull, and
dirty jobs (and also from a variety of
blue- and white-collar jobs) in the
industrial field in the 1960s and
1970s, what will be the role of robot
ics in schools? The day that teachers
are replaced by robots is far in the
future, although there are numerous
attempts at creating robotic and cog
nitive tutors and peers. Today, robots
are not teachers, but they are tools
that facilitate the transfer of knowledge
through transdiscipinary activity-based
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2016.2550958
Date of publication: 17 June 2016
12 IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE
By Pericle Salvini, Ayorkor Korsah, and Illah Nourbakhsh
projects, e.g., Seymour Paperts theory A Very Special Issue
of constructionism. This is a very special issue, indeed! In
total, 37 articles were submitted, and
Is There Something Unique six were accepted. We received articles
About Educational Robotics? from 15 countries. Table 1 shows the
The general scope of this special issue geographic distribution of the contri
is to advance knowledge in this rela butions received based on the pri
tively new field of endeavor. More spe mary authors affiliation. The articles
cifically, the objective is to find out accepted in this special issue deal with
what lies beyond the fascination very different topics.
toward robots that we have inherited In the opening article, Morgane
from popular culture, the pleasure of Chevalier, Fanny Riedo, and Francesco
learning with robots derived from the Mondada cast some light on an often
gamification of learning, and the neglected but determinant factor
strong appeal for robotics technologies for ensuring uptake and s uccess of edu
given by its aura of innovation. Are cational robotics activities: the teachers
there authentic ways in which robotics standpoint. Drawing on the results of a
can improve education, and what survey on the use of the robot Thymio,
affordances does robotics, in particu the authors provide the reader with a
lar, provide for such educational trans detailed analysis of teachers attitudes
formation? Indeed, one of the biggest
gray areas of educational robotics con
cerns the lack of empirical evidence on
Table 1. The geographic
the educational (pedagogical as well as distribution of article
psychological) effectiveness of robots contributions for this
that is related to both the lack of stan special issue.
dardized evaluation criteria and the Number of
methodological difficulties in conduct Country Contributions
ing sound scientific tests. United States 10
This special issue solicited theoret Brazil 5
ical as well as experimental studies. Italy 4
Given the variety of tools available for Switzerland 2
performing robotics activities, the India 2
issue was open to any kind of robot Spain 2
ics platform, including self-construct Germany 2
ed or commercial and open or closed. Australia 2
There was interest in the perspectives South Africa 2
of pupils, students, and other young South Korea 1
people (learners), as well as teachers, Canada 1
tutors, and parents (educators). The Israel 1
issue was not limited to any age Greece 1
group, from kindergarten to universi Hungary 1
ty, nor formal or informal education Portugal 1
al context.
JUNE 2016
toward educational robots, focusing on
three main aspects: utility, usability,
and acceptability.
Contrary to mainstream studies
highlighting the advantages of using
robotics for teaching computer sci
ence and robotics, in their article,
Edoardo Datteri and Luisa Zecca dis
cuss the transdisciplinary effects of
educational robotics activities. Draw
ing on their experience with primary
school children, the authors argue
that robotics activities can benefit stu
dents scientific inquiry skills, improv
ing their ability to observe, describe,
and explain natural phenomena.
Although the interest in educational
robotics is growing, deciding which
robotics kit to use is not any easy task,
especially for newcomers. The purpose
of the article by rpd Takcs, Gyrgy primary and secondary education.
Eigner, Levente Kovcs, Imre J. Rudas,
and Tams Haidegger is to provide
some guidelines on choosing the best
robotics kit. The authors review the edu
cational robotics kits currently available
in the market, focusing their analysis on
the system capabilities, modularity, and
teaching materials available.
The need for incorporating robot
ics activities in a specific robotics
curriculum is addressed in the article
by Carlotta A. Berry, Sekou L. Remy,
and Tamara E. Rogers. They propose
and describe the nature of a standard
curriculum and provide recommen
dations as to how to practically apply
such a curriculum in schools.
Ekawahyu Susilo, Jianing Liu, Yasmin
Alvarado Rayo, Ashley Melissa Peck,
Justin Montenegro, Mark Gonyea, and
Pietro Valdastri describe the functional
ities of their newly developed education
al robotics kit, STORMLab Modular
Architecture for Capsules (eSMAC), a
small, low-cost, and interoperable robot
designed to support STEM disciplines in
Robots are good not only for
improving ICT or scientific literacy.
Sverin Lemaignan, Alexis Jacq, Dean
na Hood, Fernando Garcia, Ana Paiva,
and Pierre Dillenbourg explore the
benefits of using robots for educative
purposes. By drawing on several field
experiments in which they applied the
learning-by-teaching paradigm and
elicited social engagement, the authors
discuss how a small humanoid robot
(Nao) can improve handwriting in chil
dren with handwriting difficulties.
In his article, Timothy Bower
draws on experiences with undergrad
uate students and analyzes and pro
poses some strategies for teaching
autonomous mobile robot programming
to beginner students.
Igor M. Verner, Alex Polishuk, and
Niv Krayner present and evaluate the
effectiveness of learning new science
concepts using a life-size humanoid
robot (a RoboThespian) as the teacher
in an informal educational setting with
fifth to seventh grade students.
Peter Corke, Elizabeth Greener, and
Robyn Philip describe one of the few
existing massive open online courses
endowed with innovative functional
ities, such as automatically graded
assignments and an automated student
peer-review process for students.
Final and Personal Remarks
We, the guest editors, decided to use this
last section to point out some personal
feelings about educational robotics.
Guest Editor Pericle Salvini believes that
every activity with robots (from hands-
on to theoretical lectures) at any level
(from kindergarten to high school)
should foster a critical reflection on
robotics, more or less deeply depending
on the age of students. What Salvini
means for critical reflection is twofold.
First, provide students with a realistic
perception of robotics technologies, i.e.,
avoid suggesting that robots are alive or
endowed with mental states. As a matter
of fact, during robotics activities in class
es, especially with young pupils, it can
happen that teachers listen to comments
or sentences such as Oh, poor robot! or
The robot wants to go there. Teachers
and educators must point out that robots
cannot feel anything as we humans do,
nor can they wish anything because they
just respond to the lines of code written
by programmers. In Salvinis opinion, in
a world increasingly pervaded by simula
cra and artificial intelligent devices, it is
the obligation of educators to teach the
new generations to relate with autono
mous robots in a responsible way and
recognize what life is and value properly
all that is connected to it (e.g., human
relationships and respect for animals and
the natural environment).
Secondly, reflect on the social and eth
ical implications of robotics technologies.
Today, robots amplify old problems (e.g.,
employment and military applications)
and bring about new challenges such us
human enhancement. In Salvinis opin
ion, failing to address these issues would
be akin to teaching nuclear physics with
out mentioning the risks and dangers
of nuclear power. This last sentence may
appear exaggerated to those teachers or
educators who just wish to enjoy the use
of robots to facilitate learning of building
and programming. Yet, in the coming
years, robotics will have a deeper impact
in the organization of our lives and our
social interactions, well beyond the
automation of manufacturing activi
ties, and it is the mission of schools to
provide students with the tools to
make the right choice tomorrow.
Guest Editor Illah Nourbakhsh agrees
heartily with Salvini that education af
fords us the chance to reconsider the role
of robotics and to pose critical ethical
thinking challenges to our students. Over
the next few decades, robotics technolo
gies will challenge the dynamics of em
ployment and the very social contracts at
the root of many of our societies. As we
give students a chance to understand the
scope of what is possible in robotics, so
we also empower them to have opinions
and voices that will help drive how we
can change society for the better using
robotics technologies. We have great de
grees of inequity throughout our world
today, and we face major systems-level
challenges, from human systems to cli
mate change at the earth-systems level.
By thoughtfully integrating robotics
(continued on page 105)

2016
2124 June
MED 2016: 24th Mediterranean Con-
ference on Control and Automation.
Athens, Greece. http://161.53.19.27/
med2016/
2629 June
BioRob 2016: IEEE RAS & EMBS
International Conference on Biomed-
ical Robotics and Biomechatronics.
National University of Singapore,
Singapore. Call for Papers Deadline:
passed. http://www.ieeebiorob2016.org/
29 June1 July
IAV 2016: IFAC Symposium on
Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles.
Leipzig, Germany. http://iav2016.
inf.h-brs.de/
810 July
ARSO 2016: IEEE International
Workshop on Advanced Robotics
and its Social Impacts. Shanghai,
China. http://arso2016.sjtu.edu.cn/
1215 July
AIM 2016: IEEE/ASME International
Conference on Advanced Intelligent
Mechatronics. Ottawa, Ontario, Cana-
da. http://www.aim2016.net/
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2016.2551049
Date of publication: 17 June 2016
from the guest editors (continued from page 14)
education into our childrens experiences,
we can stack the deck toward a future
in which we apply technology for
socialgood to solve some of the tremen-
dously difficult challenges we all now face.
Guest Editor Ayorkor Korsah
believes that Salvini and Nourbakhsh
have hit the nail on the head. We need
to help students understand that tech-
nology, robotics being no exception, is
neither inherently good nor bad. We as
1822 July
MARSS 2016: International Con-
ference on Manipulation, Automa-
tion, and Robotics at Small Scales.
Paris, France. http://marss-conference.
org/
2022 July
ACIRS 2016: Asia-Pacific Confer-
ence on Intelligent Robot Systems.
Tokyo, Japan. http://www.acirs.org/
710 August
ICMA 2016: IEEE International
Conference on Mechatronics and
Automation. Harbin, Heilongjiang,
China. http://2016.ieee-icma.org/
2122 August
ISAM 2016: IEEE International
Symposium on Assembly and Man-
ufacturing. Fort Worth, Texas, USA.
http://sites.ieee.org/case-2016/
2125 August
CASE 2016: IEEE International Con-
ference on Automation Science and
Engineering. Fort Worth, Texas, USA.
http://sites.ieee.org/case-2016/
2631 August
RO-MAN 2016: IEEE International
Symposium on Robot and Human
Interactive Communication. New
York, New York, USA. http://ro-man
2016.org/
humans get to decide how we wish to
organize society and address funda-
mental issues of equity and sustain-
ability, and how we wish to use
robotics and other advanced technolo-
gies to enhance our work, leisure, and
impact on the world. Furthermore, we
must take responsibility for the choic-
es that we make. Educational robotics
provides a wonderful opportunity to
foster creativity, interdisciplinary think-
JUNE 2016
calendar
29 August1 September
MMAR 2016: International Confer-
ence on Methods and Models in
Automation and Robotics. Miedzyz-
droje, Poland. http://mmar.edu.pl/
1921 September
MFI 2016: IEEE International Con-
ference on Multisensor Fusion and
Integration for Intelligent Systems.
Kongresshaus Baden-Baden, Germany.
http://mfi2016.org/Main_Page
914 October
IROS 2016: IEEE/RSJ International
Conference on Intelligent Robots and
Systems. Daejeon, Korea. http://www.
iros2016.org/
79 November
DARS 2016: International Sympo-
sium on Distributed Autonomous
Robotic Systems. London, United King-
dom. Call for Papers Deadline: 5 July
2016. http://dars2016.org/
1517 November
Humanoids 2016: IEEE-RAS 16th
International Conference on Human-
oid Robots. Cancun, Mexico. http://
www.humanoids2016.org/
1315 December
SII 2016: IEEE/SICE International
Symposium on System Integration.
Sapporo, Japan. 
ing, and problem-solving abilities in
students, and to give them a sense of
agency to create innovative autonomous
solutions to problems and to help
decide how these solutions are used.
Acknowledgments
We thank the Editorial Board for host-
ing this special issue, the editors-in-
chief for their constant support, and the
reviewers for their commitment.
IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE 105