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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Robot. AI

Sec. Human-Robot Interaction

Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frobt.2025.1571804

Encouraging Classroom Activities for Children Using Avatar Robots: A Field Trial

Provisionally accepted
Megumi KawataMegumi Kawata1*Masashi MaedaMasashi Maeda2Hirokazu KumazakiHirokazu Kumazaki3Hiroko KamideHiroko Kamide4Jun BabaJun Baba5Naomi MatsuuraNaomi Matsuura2Hiroshi IshiguroHiroshi Ishiguro1Yuichiro YoshikawaYuichiro Yoshikawa1
  • 1Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University, Suita-shi, Osaka, Japan
  • 2Elementary School Attached to Mie University Faculty of Education, Department of Education, Tsu, Japan
  • 3Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Nagasaki, Japan
  • 4Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of Law and Policy, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
  • 5AI lab, CyberAgent Inc., Department of Artificial Intelligence, Tokyop, Japan

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Educational institutions are facing a critical shortage of teachers worldwide. Consequently, the trend of introducing interactive robots into educational sites is growing. However, most previous research focused on specific subjects or time slots, and only a few studies have introduced interactive robots to participate in whole classroom activities with children routinely. This study investigates the use of avatar robots operated by multiple remote operators in elementary school classrooms. Over nine days, a 5th-grade class was observed to assess the robot's impact on student engagement, motivation, and peer interactions, and compared to classes where any avatar robots were not introduced. Key findings include improved student confidence in presentations, enhanced social interactions during recess, and positive feedback on the robot's role in supporting classroom activities. The results suggest that avatar robots, with consistent remote operation, can provide valuable educational support without strong negative reactions from students.

Keywords: Encouraging Classroom Activities, Remote-Controlled Avatar, Multiple operators, field trial, Educational Support Frontiers

Received: 06 Feb 2025; Accepted: 13 Aug 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Kawata, Maeda, Kumazaki, Kamide, Baba, Matsuura, Ishiguro and Yoshikawa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Megumi Kawata, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University, Suita-shi, 565-0871, Osaka, Japan

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material