Observation of Human Entrainment with Robot Assistance Towards Education

Abstract

At present, the world faces the challenge of making education available to all the people of the world, especially in under-developed areas, where there is a lack of human resources. To improve educational standards and address this lack of human resources, we believe that robots can be a good teaching aid, to assist both the teacher and the student. This study investigated the entrainment phenomenon between human interactions with a robot as a third-party influence to provide learning packages that will be suited for students and will reduce the strain on teachers. We used dynamic time warping (DTW) algorithm in our time series analysis to effectively calculate the similarity of the brainwaves of the subjects. Then, we defined the entrainment phenomenon between the subjects. To ensure the complexity of this experiment, crosswords were used for this task, which subjects were required to complete in cooperation with each another. At different points of time, the robot would use different expressions, actions, and words as reminders or hints, aiding communication and better cooperation between subjects. The timing of the robotic reminders, synchronization, conversations between the subjects in the crossword tasks, and the completion rate of the crossword puzzles were recorded. The average completion rate improved by 10% with the aid of the robot, as opposed to not using the robot. The results of this study prove that robotic participation in human interaction is beneficial, and that implementing robotic assistance will improve education.