Social Robotics, Education, and Religion in the Islamic World: An Iranian Perspective
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Social Robotics, Education, and Religion in the Islamic World: An Iranian Perspective Minoo Alemi1,2 · Alireza Taheri2 · Azadeh Shariati3 · Ali Meghdari2 Received: 4 February 2019 / Accepted: 20 May 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract The social impact of robotics applied to domains such as education, religion, nursing, and therapy across the world depends on the level of technology as well as the culture in which it is used. By studying how robots are used in Iran, a technologically-savvy country with a long history and a rich culture, we explore their possible impact on interrelated areas of religious and ethical features in education in an Islamic society. To accomplish this task, a preliminary exploratory study was conducted using two social robots as teaching assistants in Islamic religion classes for 42 elementary students. More than 90% of the participants in the study absolutely preferred the robot-assisted religion class over one taught by a human. Building on the results from the students’ viewpoints and exam scores, the acceptability and potential of using social robots in the education of Islamic religious concepts in Iran are further discussed in this paper. Keywords Social robotics · Islam · Technology · Robots · Ethics · Human–robot interaction · Religion · Iran
* Minoo Alemi [email protected] * Ali Meghdari [email protected] Alireza Taheri [email protected] Azadeh Shariati [email protected] 1
Department of Humanities, Islamic Azad University-West Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran
2
Social & Cognitive Robotics Laboratory, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
3
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College London, London, UK
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Introduction Since 1920, when Karel Čapek (1921) coined the Czech word, Robota, meaning “forced labour,” to denote a fictional humanoid in “R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots),” robots and their uses have been discussed. Much of this discussion evaluates industrial tasks—according to the Robot Institute of America (RIA), a robot is “a reprogrammable, multifunctional manipulator designed to move material, parts, tools, or specialized devices through various programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks”—and ignores their human interaction (Bartneck and Forlizzi 2004). More recently, robotics have been introduced into many social domains, including clinical rehabilitation, nursing, elderly care, search and rescue, and education. When senior research scientist K. G. Engelhardt, Director of the Center of Human Service Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University and co-authors (1992), defined the expression “service robot”, his definition included productivity but it also states that human-driven research and development will aid in creating the appropriate systems necessary to serve human needs. According to Engelhardt’s definition, a service robot is “systems that function as smart, programmable tools that can sense, think, and act to benefit or enable humans or extend/enhance human productivi
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