A wizard for kids

Frova, Davide; Landoni, Monica; Arreghini, Simone; Paolillo, Antonio

doi:10.1145/3757279.3788810

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Conference paper (in proceedings)

A wizard for kids : a platform for improvised child–robot interactions

Frova, Davide ORCID Facoltà di scienze informatiche, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera
Landoni, Monica ORCID Istituto Dalle Molle di studi sull'intelligenza artificiale (IDSIA), Facoltà di scienze informatiche, Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) e Dipartimento tecnologie innovative (DTI), Scuola universitaria professionale Svizzera italiana (SUPSI), Svizzera
Arreghini, Simone ORCID Istituto Dalle Molle di studi sull'intelligenza artificiale (IDSIA), Dipartimento tecnologie innovative (DTI), Scuola universitaria professionale Svizzera italiana (SUPSI), Svizzera
Paolillo, Antonio ORCID Istituto Dalle Molle di studi sull'intelligenza artificiale (IDSIA), Dipartimento tecnologie innovative (DTI), Scuola universitaria professionale Svizzera italiana (SUPSI), Svizzera

New York, NY, USA, 2026

Published in:

ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI '26). - Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). - 2026, p. 1308–1312

English We present an interface designed to operate social robots in a highly unpredictable context: a classroom, supporting user-centered design of innovative child–robot interactions. Having a functional prototype enables rich user data elicitation and analysis, essential for understanding user needs and deriving meaningful requirements. Deploying robots outside controlled laboratory conditions into a classroom, however, introduces challenges related to safety, robustness, and managing multiple, often noisy, interactions. Our system addresses these challenges by providing a safe, flexible and resilient interface that ensures safe operation while allowing improvisation and adaptability to unpredictable children's behaviors. The interface aims to be intuitive for non-expert users and support everyday teaching and learning activities in the classrooms. By prioritizing usability, modularity, and robustness, our approach facilitates iterative design, accelerates the transition from Wizard-of-Oz prototyping to autonomous behaviors, and contributes to making child–robot interaction technologies more accessible and practical for diverse application domains.

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