Co-robots are robots that work side-by-side with humans, assisting them and adapting to their needs rather than operating as isolated entities. Emotional states, such as frustration, and engagement play a constant part in performance of everyday tasks. A student who is overly stressed or distracted may commit errors that would be otherwise easy to avoid. We are developing Pennie, an educational co-robotic system sensitive to the emotional state of the humans it interacts with. Pennie is being developed to work with students as they learn to use the machinery in an engineering classroom. She will provide feedback to both students and teachers to optimize learning and reduce dropout from STEM fields.
