Enabling autonomous and adaptive social robots in education : a vision for the application of generative AI
- Author
- Eva Verhelst (UGent) , Ruben Janssens (UGent) and Tony Belpaeme (UGent)
- Organization
- Project
- Abstract
- The limited autonomy of social robots currently prevents many ambitions in educational robotics from being realised. This leads to scripted dialogues, content that fails to adapt to individual students and conversations remaining largely text-based. Recent advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI) might alleviate these issues, allowing for educational robots whose dialog can be flexibly generated based on the lessons to be taught, the student’s needs and personality, and the environment. This chapter presents a vision of how generative AI can power truly autonomous and adaptive social robots in edu-cation, discussing limitations of past educational robotics research, recent technical advances in AI, as well as concrete examples of applications of AI in educational human-robot interaction, and a reflection on limitations of cur-rent AI. By bridging technical and pedagogical perspectives, it shows what the next step in the evolution of human-robot interaction in educational contexts might look like.
- Keywords
- Educational Social Robots, Generative Artificial Intelligence, Educational technology, Adaptive Learning, Conversational Artificial Intelligence
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Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-01JSEDK5YSVYM6T5K89JZV2655
- MLA
- Verhelst, Eva, et al. “Enabling Autonomous and Adaptive Social Robots in Education : A Vision for the Application of Generative AI.” Social Robots in Education : How to Effectively Introduce Social Robots into Classrooms, edited by Georgios Lampropoulos and Stamatios Papadakis, vol. 1194, Springer, 2025, pp. 17–42, doi:10.1007/978-3-031-82915-4_2.
- APA
- Verhelst, E., Janssens, R., & Belpaeme, T. (2025). Enabling autonomous and adaptive social robots in education : a vision for the application of generative AI. In G. Lampropoulos & S. Papadakis (Eds.), Social robots in education : how to effectively introduce social robots into classrooms (Vol. 1194, pp. 17–42). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-82915-4_2
- Chicago author-date
- Verhelst, Eva, Ruben Janssens, and Tony Belpaeme. 2025. “Enabling Autonomous and Adaptive Social Robots in Education : A Vision for the Application of Generative AI.” In Social Robots in Education : How to Effectively Introduce Social Robots into Classrooms, edited by Georgios Lampropoulos and Stamatios Papadakis, 1194:17–42. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-82915-4_2.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Verhelst, Eva, Ruben Janssens, and Tony Belpaeme. 2025. “Enabling Autonomous and Adaptive Social Robots in Education : A Vision for the Application of Generative AI.” In Social Robots in Education : How to Effectively Introduce Social Robots into Classrooms, ed by. Georgios Lampropoulos and Stamatios Papadakis, 1194:17–42. Cham: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-82915-4_2.
- Vancouver
- 1.Verhelst E, Janssens R, Belpaeme T. Enabling autonomous and adaptive social robots in education : a vision for the application of generative AI. In: Lampropoulos G, Papadakis S, editors. Social robots in education : how to effectively introduce social robots into classrooms. Cham: Springer; 2025. p. 17–42.
- IEEE
- [1]E. Verhelst, R. Janssens, and T. Belpaeme, “Enabling autonomous and adaptive social robots in education : a vision for the application of generative AI,” in Social robots in education : how to effectively introduce social robots into classrooms, vol. 1194, G. Lampropoulos and S. Papadakis, Eds. Cham: Springer, 2025, pp. 17–42.
@incollection{01JSEDK5YSVYM6T5K89JZV2655,
abstract = {{The limited autonomy of social robots currently prevents many ambitions in educational robotics from being realised. This leads to scripted dialogues, content that fails to adapt to individual students and conversations remaining largely text-based. Recent advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI) might alleviate these issues, allowing for educational robots whose dialog can be flexibly generated based on the lessons to be taught, the student’s needs and personality, and the environment. This chapter presents a vision of how generative AI can power truly autonomous and adaptive social robots in edu-cation, discussing limitations of past educational robotics research, recent technical advances in AI, as well as concrete examples of applications of AI in educational human-robot interaction, and a reflection on limitations of cur-rent AI. By bridging technical and pedagogical perspectives, it shows what the next step in the evolution of human-robot interaction in educational contexts might look like.}},
author = {{Verhelst, Eva and Janssens, Ruben and Belpaeme, Tony}},
booktitle = {{Social robots in education : how to effectively introduce social robots into classrooms}},
editor = {{Lampropoulos, Georgios and Papadakis, Stamatios}},
isbn = {{9783031829147}},
issn = {{1860-949X}},
keywords = {{Educational Social Robots,Generative Artificial Intelligence,Educational technology,Adaptive Learning,Conversational Artificial Intelligence}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{17--42}},
publisher = {{Springer}},
series = {{Studies in computational intelligence}},
title = {{Enabling autonomous and adaptive social robots in education : a vision for the application of generative AI}},
url = {{http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-82915-4_2}},
volume = {{1194}},
year = {{2025}},
}
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