In this WIP-Innovation Practice, the authors present a shared Collaborative Online Robotics platform embedded in Google Slides application for students from primary grades to University to enhance the learning and teaching process in online and blended/hybrid environments. This Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) system is intended to facilitate an immersive experience in a collaborative virtual environment by combining physical digital artifacts with remote STEM-based instruction. Particularly relevant during COVID-19, it also helps connect students potentially isolated by other factors (geographic, economic, environmental, health limitations, etc.). In this paper we present a first approach to the performance, acceptance, and adherence to a novel remote collaborative platform that facilitates STEM and Social Emotional Learning (SEL) enhanced by the interaction of a multiple-users with a LEGO MINDSTORM EV3 Robotic platform based on the Positive Technological Development (PTD) framework.

In this paper we explore the field of human robot interaction (HRI) by adding a new non-physical player in the interaction rather than only humans and robots. It is a proven fact that physical robots enhance the immersion perception compared to only virtual agents. Thus, we created a shared environment with a Pleo Robot and a Virtual Pleo Robot, which we called Vleo, connected through a server to explore this new paradigm in order to see if the engagement during the interaction is improved in intensity and duration. A straightforward set of interactions between Pleo and Vleo have been designed to create narratives and therefore, tested with a group of 8-12 year old children. Results from the test suggest that virtual social robots are a good way to enhance interaction with physical social robots.

The aims of the study presented in this paper are to find evidence that the customization of a robot increases the engagement interacting with it, and the adaptation of a non-social robotic platform like LEGO Robotics is possible. The study has been done with 7 years old children from primary school level that have been doing daily homework activities conducted by the robot during one month. Results showed us a higher interaction and adaptability to a social robot with the customization.

In order to observe spatial relationships in social human-robot interactions, a field trial was carried out within the CosmoCaixa Science Museum in Barcelona. The follow me episodes studied showed that the space configurations formed by guide and visitors walking together did not always fit the robot social affordances and navigation requirements to perform the guidance successfully, thus additional communication prompts are considered to regulate effectively the walking together and follow me behaviours.

This paper describes in detail the robot platform used in a rehabilitation program for children with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) under a project to compare a rehabilitation program through robotics (1) with a conventional rehabilitation program directed to parents (2) and a control group where no specific intervention is done (3). As LEGO®has been demonstrated as a useful robotic tool able to enhance children motivation, we have used it attached to an iPod which includes several activities defined by neuropsychologists and customized for each patient. In this paper we present the hardware and the software of this robotic platform and also the description of the activities that have already been proposed to patients. We present results about the use of the robot showing that the drop-out rate is lower in the intervention group with robots than in the program directed to parents.

In this paper we present an educational resource called LSMaker, a caterpillar mobile robot that has been introduced in the curricula of Engineering Education. The platform has been used to link subjects, so common tasks and challenges have been defined. We are looking for updating contents and educational methodology, enhancing the motivation of students and not less important, increasing the number of new students in our engineering school. The interdisciplinary nature of the robotic project should facilitate the assimilation of new concepts. We present how this project has introduced in the first year course in La Salle Engineering school, and then we analyse the results obtained after two years of running this educational methodology.

This paper presents an analysis of two comparable studies with LEGO Robotics-based activities in a social skills training program for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). One study has been carried out with a group of 16 children in the Unit of Pediatrics Psychology and Psychiatry in HSJD in Barcelona, Spain and the other with a group of 17 children at the Center for Education and Engineering Outreach (Tufts U.) in Boston, USA. The aim of this comparison is discuss lessons learnt and develop empirical based guidelines for intervention design.

Robot-assisted therapy has been researched for more than a decade and has been dominated by the seal shaped robot Paro. It is however unclear unto what extent the development of Paro has been based upon requirements that are mentioned by care professionals. In this pilot study we interviewed two groups of healthcare professionals: one that has been using Paro and one that has not been using Paro. We asked both for the requirements that would suit the target group of dementing inhabitants best and what the relation between these requirements and the stage of dementia was. Results show small differences between these groups, a clear link to other activities and also a demand for more variation in usable pet robots. Moreover, all professionals expressed the need for guidelines for robot-assisted therapy and the exchange of experiences.

We present a Cellular Neural Network (CNN) model in which cells are constituted by autonomous robots implementing some standard templates. The system can be interpreted as a multi-core processor acting on the robot environment, being each robot one of the cores. This is a particular case of robot swarm which benefits from the simplicity of the CNN template implementation.

This paper presents a study on (1) how children experience a pet robot, (2) how they play with it and (3) how children's perceptions on and interaction with pet robots are interrelated. The study features different types of subjective and objective techniques to assess the degree of perceived social entity from self-reports (i.e. questionnaires) and observed behavior. Three short questionnaires and an ad hoc code scheme of 15 low-level micro-behaviors were developed. 28 scholars aged 8 to 12 were observed at school during a play period with a Pleo robot and asked to answer the questionnaires. We found that the different questionnaire based methods were in line each other. Therefore, anyone of them can be used to measure the experience of a social entity. Play analyses showed that the two most prevalent behaviors were clearly social: petting the robot and showing it objects to engage in interaction. Moreover, children spent on average less than one per cent of the session time treating the robot as an artifact. However, significant covariation between the experience of a social entity and observed behavior could not be established.

Numerous scientists claim that the memristor may be a real breakthrough in the fields of electronic and circuit design. For this reason, it is important to study what dynamics arise in memristive networks and speculate about how they could be used for meaningful tasks. In this paper, we focus on the phenomenon of percolation in memristive networks, studying the theoretical aspects and performing SW simulations.

Since a couple of years, the memristor has been in the media spotlight and it is expected to have a major impact on the future technology. Many scientists think that it should be taught in EE undergraduate courses, but there is no general agreement on how to do so. This paper presents several approaches to memristor and a thorough discussion about them, and it is the result of numerous discussions with experts in this area.

This paper introduces two applications of Discrete Time Cellular Non-Linear Networks (DTCNN) in a robot guiding avoiding obstacles algorithm and prove the feasibility of both applications: a high data rate one, using a CMOS camera, and small data rate one, using ultrasonic sensors. The key value of DTCNNs is the locally connections and the parallelism in processing. These characteristics permit a hardware implementation, in our case over a Field Programmable Gate Arraw (FPGA) and a real time template based algorithm processing. A camera and an ultrasonic sensor are used as avoiding obstacles system, requiring both implementations, different inputs informations: the first one complex environment information and the later for basic situations information where impulsive response is required. Both input can have an enhanced behaviour within DTCNN structure.