This work explores a group learning scenario with an autonomous empathic robot. We address two research questions: (1) Can an autonomous robot designed with empathic competencies foster collaborative learning in a group context? (2) Can an empathic robot sustain positive educational outcomes in long-term collaborative learning interactions with groups of students? To answer these questions, we developed an autonomous robot with empathic competencies that is able to interact with a group of students in a learning activity about sustainable development. Two studies were conducted. The first study compares learning outcomes in children across 3 conditions: learning with an empathic robot; learning with a robot without empathic capabilities; and learning without a robot. The results show that the autonomous robot with empathy fosters meaningful discussions about sustainability, which is a learning outcome in sustainability education. The second study features groups of students who interact with the robot in a school classroom for two months. The long-term educational interaction did not seem to provide significant learning gains, although there was a change in game-actions to achieve more sustainability during game-play. This result reflects the need to perform more long-term research in the field of educational robots for group learning.
Reframing Human-Robot Interaction Through Extended Reality: Unlocking Safer, Smarter, and More Empathic Interactions with Virtual Robots and Foundation Models
Division of Robotics, Perception, and Learning, KTH Royal Institute of Technology（KTH皇家理工学院机器人、感知与学习部）；Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen（卑尔根大学临床医学系）
Social Mediation through Robots -- A Scoping Review on Improving Group Interactions through Directed Robot Action using an Extended Group Process Model
Honda Research Institute Europe GmbH（本田欧洲研究院）；Honda Research Institute USA, Inc.（本田美国研究院）；Cornell University（康奈尔大学）
When Robots Interact with Groups, Where Does the Trust Reside?
Kostas Research Institute for Homeland Security of Northeastern University（东北大学科斯塔斯国土安全研究所）；Institute of Experiential Robotics at Northeastern University（东北大学体验机器人学研究所）；Information School at the University of Sheffield（谢菲尔德大学信息学院）
Department of Computer Sciences\ of Wisconsin--Madison Department of Computer Sciences, University of Wisconsin--Madison Madison Wisconsin USA；Waseda University Tokyo Japan；IBM Research - Tokyo Tokyo Japan；Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh Pennsylvania USA；IBM Research\ Yorktown Heights New York USA；Department of Computer Sciences\ of Wisconsin--Madison；Waseda University；IBM Research - Tokyo；Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University；IBM Research\
Exploring Child-Robot Interaction in Individual and Group settings in India
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham（阿米塔大学）；AMMACHI Labs（AMMACHI实验室）；Osaka University（大阪大学）；Amrita School of Computing（阿米塔计算机学院）；Amrita School of Engineering（阿米塔工程学院）
Exploring the Use of Social Robots to Prepare Children for Radiological Procedures: A Focus Group Study
Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano（电子、信息与生物工程系，米兰理工大学）；Pediatric Radiology and Neuroradiology Department, Children’s Hospital V.Buzzi（儿童医院V.Buzzi儿科放射学与神经放射学部）
Communicating Through Avatars in Industry 5.0: A Focus Group Study on Human-Robot Collaboration
University of Augsburg Augsburg Germany；Centrum Wiskunde \& Informatica Amsterdam The Netherlands；Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich Hertz Institute, HHI Berlin Germany；National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Intelligent Industrial Technologies；German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Saarbrücken Germany；University of Augsburg；Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich Hertz Institute, HHI；German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence
