First ever robot-led lesson in Tatarstani kindergarten held by Kazan University

Robotis DarWin OP2 visited kids in Kindergarten N 188 in Kazan on 13th May.

DarWin is a dynamic anthropomorphic open platform robot. The small-sized android is produced by Robotis, a company based in South Korea, and is equipped with powerful processing hardware and sensors.

Laboratory of Intelligent Robotic Systems, headed by Yevgeny Magid, is currently working on a number of projects with various types of robots, including those for industrial, emergency works, and other uses. The robot will be assisting kindergarten teacher Natalya Levina during the next five lessons. At the first meeting, DarWin got acquainted with kids and showed them a number of basic athletic exercises.

Project head Liliya Gavrilova commented, "We've been working on this for several months, including parents' consent, questionnaires, lesson plans, and evaluation metrics. Student Arina Kotik programmed mechanical movements, and student Valery Petrov generated verbal scenarios, including 10 various voices for the android. After that, we synchronized voices and movements and conducted tests. Then we worked on scenarios and algorithms some more. During a sleep break in the kindergarten, we made final preparations. We hope that this experiment gives a clear picture of how to utilize robots for foreign language studies in preschool. Kids quickly accustomed to DarWin and communicated with it and their teacher. After the class, the children discussed the robot and asked many questions about it. One girl confessed that she now wants to enroll in Kazan University, and I told her to learn hard and believe in herself."

Provided by Kazan Federal University