July 14, 2023 was the final presentation of the “Little Teacher” project, in which Alpha Mini plays a leading role. The initiator was Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel, who has been researching conversational agents and social robots for a quarter of a century. Andrin Allemann contributed to the project as part of his thesis and carried out the implementation. In this application, Alpha Mini is intended for school or learning in a child’s room. It was connected to a tablet or laptop (a Microsoft Surface). It can teach simple learning material on geography and biology with the help of pictures and text on the display, and motivate children through verbal, gestural, and mimic feedback. It is therefore a small teacher with great possibilities. Alpha Mini is a social robot characterized by small size (and thus good transportability) and extensive natural language and motor skills. It is much less expensive than other humanoid robots with comparable capabilities. However, unlike Pepper, it does not have an integrated tablet. The project showed that it is possible to connect different components of a learning environment and to support learning success and learning enjoyment. The project was launched on March 8, 2023. Project completion is August 11, 2023. Until then, minor bugs will be fixed and several tests will be performed. The results will be published in a paper.
BY OLIVER BENDEL
