Design of robot teaching assistants through multi-modal human-robot interactions

The interest on introducing robots in schools has increased significantly in recent years. Robots in these environments are managed by educators who design teaching activities where the students can consolidate the knowledge acquired in the classroom by interacting with the robot. In this context, the use of multiple modalities of communication can become a determining factor to achieve the success of the interaction and a better learning experience. However, the design of such multi-modal interactions can be a complex and time-consuming process, specially for teachers lacking of technical expertise. In this paper, we propose a formalism for the description of multi-modal interactions based on the use of interaction templates which facilitates the design and management of the multi-modal behaviour by non-expert users (i.e., teachers). We provide an example of application of our approach on the educational context, using an autonomous robot as a teaching assistant, showing the usability and extendability of our system.