Tallinn University of Technology's IT College research group and Ülemiste City will organize a public experiment on Monday, December 11, where you can try communication with the semi-autonomous robot assistant TEMI and assess its suitability for the role of house guide. Today, the TEMI robot is used all over the world in commerce, healthcare, libraries, hotels or educational institutions.
In a day-long experiment, researchers from the college's Creativity Matters research group will investigate how people who come to Öpik's house perceive the robot or how comfortable they feel in this communication situation. According to Janika Leoste, the head of the research group, in a 15-minute experiment, each research participant can experience how to communicate with the robot, find the right room under its guidance, or how to use it to contact a company representative.
According to Leoste, what makes the experiment unique is the fact that previous studies reflect similar experiments in simulated or closed spaces (hospitals, schools, etc.), but in the case of Ülemiste, it is an open and non-simulated environment from which exciting research material can come.
"At the end of each experiment, the robot guides the person back to the starting point, where the participant fills out a questionnaire about how he or she felt in this communication situation, how the situation was perceived or what effect the robot's voice had, for example," added Janika Leoste. She added that based on the results, a scientific article will be created that will help all service companies and organizations to adopt robots in the best way.
Mainor AS development manager Silver Kelk noted that the research experiment with a service robot in Estonia's largest business campus is significant and marks the beginning of a new era in Ülemiste City. "Innovative and functional solutions are the central keywords of the town, and it is important for us that every member or guest of Ülemiste City experiences this already at the reception," said Kelk. It is important that service robots are able to communicate humanly and develop into skilled colleagues, as they will become our business cards in the long run, he added.
On the same day as TalTech IT College's research experiment, a vision seminar "Communicating service robots - either useful or rather a nuisance" will be held in the Öpik conference center, where thoughts will be exchanged about the role of communicating service robots in today's society. Among others, Thomas Hollstein from the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences talks about robot assistants as a solution for a German hospital. The working language of the conference is English.
Creativity Matters research group at TalTech IT College is a multidisciplinary team that focuses on IT didactics in higher education. Our main research lines are using telepresence and personal assistant robots in higher education and healthcare; innovative blended and online teaching methods; STEAM approach integration into IT teaching.