This Research Topic is part of a series:
Volume I.
Robots are increasingly being introduced to social environments. A key application domain for robots is in supporting the process of learning and training, for example, in work and education. Robots are also designed for health contexts to involve and inform the patients in the execution of rehabilitation or cognitive exercises and in the explanation of medical therapy protocols.
The embodiment of a robot can lead to greater engagement and, therefore, to greater comprehension and consolidation of concepts or procedures. The process of learning can also be facilitated by the robot as, through social interactions, a robot can convey educational content, adapt its behavior according to different learning needs, and assess student learning and understanding.
This Research Topic is aimed at the investigation of new methods, approaches, and architectures for supporting human learning and learning-related functioning of robots in social contexts. A particular focus of the topic will be the role of robots as an innovative educational tool in helping students and teachers to overcome different learning-related barriers.
Relevant topics include (but are not limited to):
• Learning through human-robot interaction
• Cognitive architectures for educational robots
• Robot social cues for educational contexts
• Human-robot interaction as social practice in educational contexts
• Robot emotional and social skills to support learning
• Adaptive robot-assisted/guided learning
• Serious games with robots
• Learner profiling through human-robot interaction
• Collaborative learning with robots
• Robotic storytelling
• Robot-assisted/guided STEM and STEAM learning
• Robots for embodied cognition
• Social role-playing in human-robot interactions
• Robots for occupational training
• Robots as co-learners
