Can You Dance? A Study of Child-Robot Interaction and Emotional Response Using the NAO Robot

This retrospective study presents and summarizes our long-term efforts in the popularization of robotics, engineering, and artificial intelligence (STEM) using the NAO humanoid robot. By a conservative estimate, over a span of 8 years, we engaged at least a couple of thousand participants: approximately 70% were preschool children, 15% were elementary school students, and 15% were teenagers and adults. We describe several robot applications that were developed specifically for this task and assess their qualitative performance outside a controlled research setting, catering to various demographics, including those with special needs (ASD, ADHD). Five groups of applications are presented: (1) motor development activities and games, (2) children's games, (3) theatrical performances, (4) artificial intelligence applications, and (5) data harvesting applications. Different cases of human-robot interactions are considered and evaluated according to our experience, and we discuss their weak points and potential improvements. We examine the response of the audience when confronted with a humanoid robot featuring intelligent behavior, such as conversational intelligence and emotion recognition. We consider the importance of the robot's physical appearance, the emotional dynamics of human-robot engagement across age groups, the relevance of non-verbal cues, and analyze drawings crafted by preschool children both before and after their interaction with the NAO robot.