Robots to beat the bullies? (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

Robots to beat the bullies?

11:26am Monday 5th May 2008

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MORE than 200 schoolchildren will visit the University of Hertfordshire this week to interact with its robots and trial anti-bullying software.

The event, hosted by the university's computer science team, will see groups of eight to twelve-year-old children sampling role-play software designed to tackle bullying in the playground.

The children will interact with a humanoid robot being developed as a social companion and KASPAR, a child-like robot which has been used to help children with autism to communicate and is now being developed further so that it can act autonomously.

Scott Watson, of the university's science team, said: "We are looking forward to the children's feedback on the software as well as their opinions on the robots. We hope the event will be both educational as well as entertaining for the children."

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