Oregon State University professor uses entertainment robot to educate

Oregon State University’s robots are learning to perform comedy, and researchers like Naomi Fitter, assistant professor for the School of Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, are using this as an opportunity to teach others about how robots work.
OSU is ranked number four for the best Robotics Engineering School in the United States, according to the OSU website. According to Fitter, entertainment robots can be used to help people learn what’s going on inside the robot in an entertaining and engaging way. She takes advantage of this in her own classroom, as well as with the public. Fitter was involved in a robot comedy show hosted at the Majestic Theater last Friday, which featured Fitter’s  Jon the Robot, a joke-telling robot.
I think the entertainment robotics area holds some special role in that it’s nice to be able to engage with the public and share robotics research, Fitter said. Last term I brought Jon the Robot with me into class when we were talking about sensor signal processing. I can tell my students what’s going on in the background of this robotic comedy routine and it’s also entertaining and more relatable.