A Review of the Applicability of Robots in Education

Robots are becoming an integral component of our society and have great potential in being utilized as an educational technology. To promote a deeper understanding of the area, we present a review of the field of robots in education. Several prior ventures in the area are discussed (post-2000) with the help of classification criteria. The dissecting criteria include domain of the learning activity, location of the activity, the role of the robot, types of robots and types of robotic behaviour. Our overview shows that robots are primarily used to provide language, science or technology education and that a robot can take on the role of a tutor, tool or peer in the learning activity. We also present open questions and challenges in the field that emerged from the overview. The results from our overview are of interest to not only researchers in the field of human-robot interaction but also administration in educational institutes who wish to understand the wider implications of adopting robots in education.