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You’re Faulty But I Like You: Children’s Perceptions on Faulty Robots

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Robotics in Education (RiE 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ((LNNS,volume 747))

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Abstract

This paper presents a study conducted in a United Kingdom primary school with the Maqueen BBC micro:bit robot. The purpose was to explore whether easy-to-fix hardware issues affected the children’s perception of the robot or their enjoyment of the session, and whether the children could cope with these failures and/or repair them. As with any piece of technology, robots break down and are in regular need of reparation, but this technical issue could be a disadvantage in a classroom setting, as it might impact the children’s enjoyment and confidence in their abilities to carry out the given task; potentially this could deter teachers from using this technology. 128 children participated in this study, aged 7–12 years old (M\(=\)9,18; SD\(=\)1,061). While children did perceive robots to be faulty less times than the faults were present in the robots, they did consider themselves capable of solving these issues and enjoyed doing so. Their perception of a faulty robot also did not impact significantly in their enjoyment nor in their consideration of the robot as a machine or a friend.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK

    Sílvia Moros & Luke Wood

Authors
  1. Sílvia Moros
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  2. Luke Wood
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Correspondence to Sílvia Moros .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Slovak University of Technology (STU), Bratislava, Slovakia

    Richard Balogh

  2. Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

    David Obdržálek

  3. University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Eftychios Christoforou

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Moros, S., Wood, L. (2023). You’re Faulty But I Like You: Children’s Perceptions on Faulty Robots. In: Balogh, R., Obdržálek, D., Christoforou, E. (eds) Robotics in Education. RiE 2023. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 747. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38454-7_14

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