Curiosity meets robotics - pupils experience future technologies at DLR_School_Lab

The project day combined technical expertise with linguistic and social learning and impressively demonstrated how exciting and accessible future technologies can be for young people.

After a brief welcome from the head of the laboratory, Stefan Richter, the programme began with two parallel workshops. One group worked with the humanoid robot Ami, while the other group got active in the specially developed robot dog course. After a joint break, the groups swapped roles so that each student could familiarise themselves with both areas.

The workshop with Ami focussed on language skills and creative communication. English and French lessons were held with the robot, with the young people completing interactive tasks and testing Ami on various dialogue questions.

The accompanying teacher Marie Neubert found it particularly exciting to observe how the young people's attitudes towards the humanoid robot changed over the course of the day. "What I found most exciting was to see that the young people showed greater uncertainty towards Ami than when dealing with ChatGPT on the PC. Over the course of the workshop, however, this visibly decreased for most of them, so that they also dared to experiment with special requests such as 'Tell me a scary story' or 'Can I hit the boss at a job interview? You could see how they learnt!" reports the enthusiastic teacher Neubert.

At the same time, the participants completed the so-called Robo dog driving licence. They first learnt which characteristics of real dogs serve as models for robotic systems and where such technologies are already being used today. The subsequent practical part involved a varied course with tasks such as "slalom run", "wobbly paw - bridge crossing", "wolf cave - tunnel crossing" and "Robo-Dog in action - find object". Here, technical understanding, teamwork, mindfulness and coordination were funded in equal measure.

The young people's registering for the following semester was consistently positive. Marten Höbel summarises: "The day at the BTU was very interesting. The handling of the Robo-Dogs was the best part, especially the course." Finja Lehmann is also enthusiastic: "The day at the BTU was extraordinary and interesting. You realised that the robots were really entrusted to you and you could really try them out."

The project day at DLR_School_Lab was a complete success for everyone involved. It not only offered the pupils exciting insights into modern technologies, but also the opportunity to creatively and critically analyse the role of robots in our society - learning with head, heart and hand.