Using Dialogues with Humanoid Robots for Information Retrieval in an Online Learning System

Abstract

A humanoid robot can be used as a partner in classroom learning. This study attempts to use an online learning system as an information source in a classroom with a humanoid robot, NAO, providing the verbal interface of the system. The dialogue between a human user and the robot plays a role of presenting knowledge along the lecture context.
To enable the learning system to “talk”, we built a Topic Maps (ISO/IEC 13250:2002) ontology of the knowledge provided by the system. In the Topic Maps ontology, subject topics are interconnected with specific associations. NAO connects to the online system through a topic map remote access protocol. Various types of associations among the topics are defined. These associations shape the dialogues linking the specific topics and data provided by the system.