Could teaching kids how robots are used in the real world create a new generation of designers to build revolutionary machines? That’s the idea behind a new study of children’s perceptions of robots.
In a study echoing the 1983 “draw me a scientist” test – in which researcher David Chambers, now of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, used drawings to highlight the differences between children’s view of scientists and the reality – psychologist Corinne Zimmerman and engineer Kevin Devine of Illinois State University in Normal asked 143 schoolchildren aged between 6 and 10 to “draw a picture of a robot doing something robots often do”.
The results showed a clear stereotype of robots, says Zimmerman, who presented the study at the International Society for the Psychology of Science and Technology meeting in Berkeley, California, earlier this month. The children saw them as boxy humanoids with legs and a square head, typically operating free of direct human control to engage in human-like work and play, from washing dishes and doing kids’ homework to golfing, skipping and dancing – About 30 per cent of the children drew them boogieing.
No more dancing
A group of 29 children who had previously submitted robot drawings were then given lessons about what robots currently do in the real world, including a field trip to see an industrial robot. They were then asked to redraw a robot.
Subsequently, only one child drew a humanoid robot – most instead drew industrial robots doing things like food processing or building cars. “The drawings were just as creative and complex, but they lacked the fictional elements of robots,” says Zimmerman.
What’s more, the change in perceptions stuck. After a three-month gap, repeat robot drawings were much the same. Zimmerman believes this demonstrates the teaching “narrowed the gap” between science fiction and reality. It is more realistic to conceive of an automaton under human control than a robot with free will, she says, adding that a better grasp of real robots may help students move into related careers.
But Noel Sharkey, a robotics researcher at the University of Sheffield, UK, doubts that “damping the children’s ideas” will breed a new generation of robot designers. Existing humanoid robots can perform many tasks, from caring for the elderly to folding towels, he adds.
Sharkey isn’t surprised that the children’s robots danced: a search on YouTube will show many real dancing humanoid robots have been built over the past 10 years, he says. “We should encourage a realistic view of robots among children, but we should not limit this so as to stifle their creativity.”
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