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Entertainment robotics has garnered significant attention in recent years, with researchers focusing on developing robots capable of performing a variety of tasks, including magic, drawing, dancing, and music. This article presents our research on forming a musical band that includes both humanoid robots and human musicians, with the goal of achieving natural synchronization and collaboration during musical performances. We utilized two of our humanoid robots for this project: Polaris, a mid-sized humanoid robot, as the drummer, and Oscar, a Robotis-OP3 humanoid robot, as the keyboardist. The technical implementation incorporated essential components such as visual servoing, human-robot interaction, and Robot Operating System (ROS), enabling seamless communication and coordination between the humanoid robots and the human musicians. The success of this collaborative effort can be both seen and heard through the following YouTube link: https://youtu.be/pFOyt1KKCfY?feature=shared.

In the last ten years, advances in machine learning methods have brought tremendous developments to the field of robotics. The performance in many robotic applications such as robotics grasping, locomotion, human–robot interaction, perception and control of robotic systems, navigation, planning, mapping, and localization has increased since the appearance of recent machine learning methods. In particular, deep learning methods have brought significant improvements in a broad range of robot applications including drones, mobile robots, robotics manipulators, bipedal robots, and self-driving cars. The availability of big data and more powerful computational resources, such as graphics processing units (GPUs), has made numerous robotic applications feasible which were not possible previously.

We discuss the new challenges and directions facing the use of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) in education research, policy-making, and industry. In recent years, applications of big data and AI in education have made significant headways. This highlights a novel trend in leading-edge educational research. The convenience and embeddedness of data collection within educational technologies, paired with computational techniques have made the analyses of big data a reality. We are moving beyond proof-of-concept demonstrations and applications of techniques, and are beginning to see substantial adoption in many areas of education. The key research trends in the domains of big data and AI are associated with assessment, individualized learning, and precision education. Model-driven data analytics approaches will grow quickly to guide the development, interpretation, and validation of the algorithms. However, conclusions from educational analytics should, of course, be applied with caution. At the education policy level, the government should be devoted to supporting lifelong learning, offering teacher education programs, and protecting personal data. With regard to the education industry, reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationships should be developed in order to enhance academia-industry collaboration. Furthermore, it is important to make sure that technologies are guided by relevant theoretical frameworks and are empirically tested. Lastly, in this paper we advocate an in-depth dialog between supporters of “cold” technology and “warm” humanity so that it can lead to greater understanding among teachers and students about how technology, and specifically, the big data explosion and AI revolution can bring new opportunities (and challenges) that can be best leveraged for pedagogical practices and learning.

A spherical wheel robot or Ballbot—a robot that balances on an actuated spherical ball—is a new and recent type of robot in the popular area of mobile robotics. This paper focuses on the modeling and control of such a robot. We apply the Lagrangian method to derive the governing dynamic equations of the system. We also describe a novel Fuzzy Sliding Mode Controller (FSMC) implemented to control a spherical wheel mobile robot. The nonlinear nature of the equations makes the controller nontrivial. We compare the performance of four different fuzzy controllers: (a) regulation with one signal, (b) regulation and position control with one signal, (c) regulation and position control with two signals, and (d) FSMC for regulation and position control with two signals. The system is evaluated in a realistic simulation and the robot parameters are chosen based on a LEGO platform, so the designed controllers have the ability to be implemented on real hardware.

Imitation learning enables a learner to improve its abilities by observing others. Most robotic imitation learning systems only learn from demonstrators that are similar physically and in terms of skill level. In order to employ imitation learning in a heterogeneous multi-agent environment, we must consider both differences in skill, and physical differences (physiology, size). This paper describes an approach to imitation learning from heterogeneous demonstrators, using global vision. It supports learning from physiologically different demonstrators (wheeled and legged, of various sizes), and self-adapts to demonstrators with varying levels of skill. The latter allows different parts of a task to be learned from different individuals (that is, worthwhile parts of a task can still be learned from a poorly-performing demonstrator). We assume the imitator has no initial knowledge of the observable effects of its own actions, and train a set of Hidden Markov Models to create an understanding of the imitator’s own abilities. We then use a combination of tracking sequences of primitives and predicting future primitives from existing combinations of primitives, using forward models to learn abstract behaviors from demonstrations. This approach is evaluated using a group of heterogeneous robots that have been previously used in RoboCup soccer competitions.