Development of low-cost social robots for solving mental health issues and teacher’s assistance in the education field.

Title of the project:

Problem Statement:

The human-computer interaction (HCI) for human-computer interaction (HRI) is a new, growing, and increasingly popular research area at the intersection of several fields, including robotics, computer vision, and cognitive sciences. New applications for robots in health and education are being developed for broad populations of users. As a field, mental health and education face significant challenges as it attempts to close the huge gap between those who need services and those who receive services. Technological advances have provided exciting new resources in this battle in recent decades. A social robot is a promising area that has expanded into several exciting applications. Some of the key objectives are as follows:

How social robots will use to enhance mental health services for Indian populations?
How social robots will be used to enable children to become motivated and engaged in Science, Mathematics, and Technology (SMT) through observation, experimentation, drawing, model building, rational reasoning, test ability, etc.

Project Brief:

The long-term goal of our project is to develop a social robot that can assist doctors and teachers in their respective fields. In the medical field, we implemented a low-cost robot to identify mental health conditions, i.e., depression, stress, and anxiety are proposed, benefiting from the advantages of machine learning and low-cost hardware. Another extension is developing social interaction and emotional and cognitive development through play-based learning and captivating content for children.

Teaching assistant robots will play a major role in the future so it is imperative that we prepare the present generation of students for transition. The goal was to compare the current state, in which an instructor attempts to facilitate several groups in the classroom, to a robot facilitator that is more limited in terms of emotional and cognitive capabilities yet remains with the group for the entire activity to facilitate it.

Current status:

For the applications in depression, stress, and anxiety, we will generally start by asking questions about participant symptoms, including how long they had them and how they affect their daily life. Keeping in mind an open and honest description of the mood will help Furhat better understand how one is feeling, which can lead them to the correct cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which is one of the most evidence-based psychological interventions for the treatment of depression, anxiety, and stress. Our social robot has been trained for understanding English and Hindi language. This robot is also trained to interact with children for giving a happiness by telling of story and jokes.

In the education field, college students will learn skills in college-level Computer Science like calculus, trigonometry, and coordinate geometry. Also, a college student will learn skills in the English language as well as grammar. The social robot will enable

students to ask questions in Computer Science to the robot. Also, the social robot will prepare students in soft skills like interview rehearsals and group discussions.