Robot teachers tested in South Korea

One can only wonder at the desire of the inhabitants of Asian countries to replace people of a certain profession with robots. Not so long ago, I wrote that in Japan they created a robot-loader, which is designed to compensate for the lack of people who want to work as loaders. Now the Koreans have created the first batch of robotic teachers for elementary school classes, and these robots are already undergoing testing. The robot teacher was named Engkey.

These robots are not particularly similar to humans, they can only be called humanoid with a stretch. The main requirements that the developers tried to fulfill were the ability of robots to teach the necessary subjects to their pupils in good quality, plus contact directly with schoolchildren. The height of the robot is only one meter, the body of the robot is egg-shaped, and on the “chest” there is a display where students can see the face of the person.
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The robot moves not on its feet, but on wheels, which gives them a certain mobility and stability. Robotic "teachers" can even dance in response to music. It is worth noting that robots can both teach the materials themselves, using the information recorded earlier, and act as a teleconference. If the teacher considers it necessary to conduct a lecture on his own, he can make contact with the robot and teach directly from the screen located on the robot's chest.

It is worth noting that, according to the developers, these robots are cost-effective, since using a robot in remote regions is much more profitable than inviting a human teacher to such a region. Plus, highly qualified teachers can teach remotely.

Note that the cost of such robots is not particularly high, since the total cost of the project with test robots already released is only $ 1.37 million. This is not so much if you remember that this is usually the cost of one robot created by a large company, such as Sony. Of course, the functionality of Engkey is slightly lower than the functionality of universal robots from the same Sony, however, they perform their function 100%.

In general, quite an interesting idea, which has already ceased to be an idea, becoming a reality. Let me remind you that robots are already being tested, and, moreover, very successful.

Via afp