Francesco Mondada

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne | EPFL · School of Engineering

Biohybrid systems in which robotic lures interact with animals have become compelling tools for probing and identifying the mechanisms underlying collective animal behavior. One key challenge lies in the transfer of social interaction models from simulations to reality, using robotics to validate the modeling hypotheses. This challenge arises in br...

The collective behavior of animals has been traditionally studied through observation, quantitative models of behavior, and devices of low intelligence. Nowadays, the advancements in the field of robotics allow for closed-loop experiments that occur in real-time, and for artificial agents that intelligently and autonomously blend into hybrid groups...

Sustaining changes in teachers’ practices is a challenge that determines the success of curricular reforms, from which Digital Education (DE) is not exempt. As the literature on sustainability is considered “scarce” and “scattered”, long-term studies modelling the factors impacting teachers’ sustained uptake of DE pedagogical content are lacking. T...

Many countries struggle to effectively introduce Digital Education (DE) to all K-12 students as they lack adequately trained teachers. While cascade models of in-service teacher-professional development (PD) can rapidly deploy PD-programs through multiple levels of trainers to reach all teachers, they suffer from many limitations and are often inef...

Early exposure to Computer Science (CS) for all is critical to broaden participation and promote equity in the field. But how does introducting CS into primary school curricula impact learning, perception, and gaps between groups of students? We investigate a CS-curricular reform and teacher Professional Development (PD) program from an equity stan...

The introduction of computing education into curricula worldwide requires multi-year assessments to evaluate the long-term impact on learning. However, no single Computational Thinking (CT) assessment spans primary school, and no group of CT assessments provides a means of transitioning between instruments. This study therefore investigated whether...

L’arrivée de ChatGPT, un agent conversationnel utilisant l’intelligence artificielle a marqué un tournant majeur. Depuis son lancement en novembre 2022, cette technologie connaît une adoption rapide dans divers secteurs, y compris celui de l’éducation. Cette enquête a exploré comment les enseignant.es des écoles privées du canton de Vaud appréhende...

L’arrivée de ChatGPT, un agent conversationnel utilisant l’intelligence artificielle a marqué un tournant majeur. Depuis son lancement en novembre 2022, cette technologie connaît une adoption rapide dans divers secteurs, y compris celui de l’éducation. Cette enquête a exploré comment les enseignant.es appréhendent l’arrivée de ChatGPT, ainsi que le...

Robotic technologies have shown the capability to interact with living organisms and even to form integrated mixed societies composed of living and artificial agents. Biocompatible robots, incorporating sensing and actuation capable of generating and responding to relevant stimuli, can be a tool to study collective behaviors previously unattainable...

Context Introducing Computer Science (CS) into formal education can be challenging, notably when considering the numerous stakeholders involved which include the students, teachers, schools, and policy makers. We believe these perspectives should be considered conjointly, which is possible within Research Practice Partnerships (RPPs). RPPs look to...

Deciphering the social interactions that govern collective behavior in animal societies has greatly benefited from advancements in modern computing. Computational models diverge into two kinds of approaches: analytical models and machine learning models. This work introduces a deep learning model for social interactions in the fish species Hemigram...

This paper explores the experience of 14 teacher-trainers involved in a train-the-trainer digital education program in Switzerland. Data collected between August 2019 and June 2021 through focus groups and collaborative portfolios were analyzed through thematic analysis. A qualitative analysis was used to identify the main factors facilitating or h...

Context With the introduction of computer science (CS) into curricula worldwide, teachers’ adoption of CS-pedagogical content is essential to ensure the long-term success of reform initiatives. Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programs play a key role in this process. Unfortunately, adoption is seldom evaluated in CS-CPDs, or CPDs in gener...

As the number of digital education curricular reforms is increasing worldwide, the need to upgrade teachers' digital competencies has emerged and led to the development of dedicated training programs. With the aim of promoting a comprehensive evaluation of such programs, this article introduces a new theoretical model describing the full process of...

With the increasing importance of Computational Thinking (CT) at all levels of education, it is essential to have valid and reliable assessments. Currently, there is a lack of such assessments in upper primary school. That is why we present the development and validation of the competent CT test (cCTt), an unplugged CT test targeting 7–9 year-old s...

Chapter “Investigating the Role of Educational Robotics in Formal Mathematics Education: The Case of Geometry for 15-Year-Old Students” was previously published non-open access. It has now been changed to open access under a CC BY 4.0 license and the copyright holder updated to ‘The Author(s)’. The book has also been updated with this change.

With the increasing importance of Computational Thinking (CT) at all levels of education, it is essential to have valid and reliable assessments. Currently, there is a lack of such assessments in upper primary school. That is why we present the development and validation of the competent CT test (cCTt), an unplugged CT test targeting 7-9 year-old s...

With the introduction of Computer Science (CS) into curricula worldwide, researchers have investigated whether CS could be introduced transversally, as a support other disciplines. Few however consider both student learning and the teachers’ perspective in their assessments. In a co-constructive approach to translational research, we collaborated w...

Computational thinking (CT) is considered an emerging competence domain linked to 21st-century competences, and educational robotics (ER) is increasingly recognised as a tool to develop CT competences. This is why researchers recommend developing intervention methods adapted to classroom practice and providing explicit guidelines to teachers on int...

Computational thinking is a fundamental competence that is being introduced in K-12 and succeeding curricula worldwide. Despite this huge effort, many computational thinking models in the literature do not explicitly take into consideration the pupils’ age and the developmental nature of computational thinking skills. Furthermore, many existing com...

Recently, introducing computer science and educational robots in compulsory education has received increasing attention. However, the use of screens in classrooms is often met with resistance, especially in primary school. To address this issue, this study presents the development of a handwriting-based programming language for educational robots....

With the introduction of educational robotics (ER) and computational thinking (CT) in classrooms, there is a rising need for operational models that help ensure that CT skills are adequately developed. One such model is the Creative Computational Problem Solving Model (CCPS) which can be employed to improve the design of ER learning activities. Fol...

This chapter addresses the alignment of educational robotics (ER) tools with classroom activities. To this end, it first introduces a conceptualization of ER activities describing the relevant cognitive artifacts and the learning theories underlying such activities. Based on this conceptual framework, a set of design and evaluation heuristics are p...

Research has shown that Educational Robotics (ER) enhances student performance, interest, engagement and collaboration. However, until now, the adoption of robotics in formal education has remained relatively scarce. Among other causes, this is due to the difficulty of determining the alignment of educational robotic learning activities with the le...

Educational Robotics (ER) has the potential to provide significant benefits to education, provided an increase in outreach by transitioning from the extra-curricular initiatives in which ER has thrived to formal education. As Computer Science (CS) Education is undergoing curricular reforms worldwide, the present study addresses the case of a Digita...

Educational Robotics holds the potential to promote the development of important 21st century skills, such as creativity and problem-solving skills in addition to digital literacy. However, the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has posed particular obstacles that had to be overcome in order to allow Educational Robotics activities to be conducted...

Research has shown that Educational Robotics (ER) enhances student performance, interest, engagement and collaboration. However, until now, the adoption of robotics in formal education has remained relatively scarce. Among other causes, this is due to the difficulty of determining the alignment of educational robotic learning activities with the le...

Recently, introducing computer science and educational robots in compulsory education has received increasing attention. However, the use of screens in classrooms is often met with resistance, especially in primary school. To address this issue, this study presents the development of a handwriting-based programming language for educational robots....

With the introduction of educational robotics (ER) and computational thinking (CT) in classrooms, there is a rising need for operational models that help ensure that CT skills are adequately developed. One such model is the Creative Computational Problem Solving Model (CCPS) which can be employed to improve the design of ER learning activities. Fol...

Integrating computer science (CS) into school curricula has become a worldwide preoccupation. Therefore, we present a CS and Robotics integration model and its validation through a large-scale pilot study in the administrative region of the Canton Vaud in Switzerland. Approximately 350 primary school teachers followed a mandatory CS continuing prof...

We develop here a novel hypothesis that may generate a general research framework of how autonomous robots may act as a future contingency to counteract the ongoing ecological mass extinction process. We showcase several research projects that have undertaken first steps to generate the required prerequisites for such a technology-based conservatio...

Background Educational robotics (ER) is increasingly used in classrooms to implement activities aimed at fostering the development of students’ computational thinking (CT) skills. Though previous works have proposed different models and frameworks to describe the underlying concepts of CT, very few have discussed how ER activities should be impleme...

Group-living organisms that collectively migrate range from cells and bacteria to human crowds, and include swarms of insects, schools of fish, and flocks of birds or ungulates. Unveiling the behavioural and cognitive mechanisms by which these groups coordinate their movements is a challenging task. These mechanisms take place at the individual sca...

The objective of this study is to integrate biomimetic robots into small groups of zebrafish and to modulate their collective behaviours. In this study, we explore different strategies that use biomimetic zebrafish behaviours. In past work, we have shown that robots biomimicking zebrafish can be socially integrated into zebrafish groups. We have al...

In the past years, educational escape games have raised interest in researchers and educators as a new game-based learning approach to break out from the traditional classroom routine. Recent work has demonstrated that educational escape games elicit high motivation and engagement on the part of the participants. Moreover, it has been shown that ma...

Robots bring a new potential for embodied learning in classrooms. With our project, we aim to ease the task for teachers and to show the worth of tangible manipulation of robots in educational contexts. In this article, we present the design and the evaluation of two pedagogical activities prepared for a primary school teacher and targeting common...

The objective of this study is to integrate biomimetic robots into small groups of zebrafish and to modulate their collective behaviours. A possible approach is to have the robots behave like sheepdogs. In this case, the robots would behave like a different species than the fish and would present different relevant behaviours. In this study, we exp...

Group-living organisms that collectively migrate range from cells and bacteria to human crowds, and include swarms of insects, schools of fish and flocks of birds or ungulates. Unveiling the behavioural and cognitive mechanisms by which these groups coordinate their movements is a challenging task. These mechanisms take place at the individual scal...

Many studies on collective animal behavior seek to identify the individual rules that underlie collective patterns. However, it was not until the recent advancements of micro-electronic and embedded systems that scientists were able to create mixed groups of sensor-rich robots and animals and study collective interactions from the within a bio-hybr...

In the past, the use of tangible programming languages has shown several advantages compared to screen-based graphical programming languages. Especially when presented to novices, such interfaces may represent a more intuitive and straightforward alternative to teach basic computer science and programming concepts. Previous studies have reported in...

In this chapter, we provide an overview of the experimental setup that was designed for mixed societies experiments with zebrafish and the two robotic devices described in the two previous chapters. This setup design was implemented three times. One time at the EPFL in order to perform the validation tests and preliminary biological experiments, as...

In this chapter, we present one of the two robotic devices that was developed during this thesis: the FishBot, a miniature wheeled mobile robot, which main purpose is to transmit motion to a fish lure inside an aquarium.

In this chapter, we present the second robotic device that was designed for this project: the RiBot, a robotic fish lure equipped with an actuated caudal peduncle, LEDs, a rechargeable battery, and that can be remotely control underneath the water.

The previous chapter presented the results of an experiment performed in order to isolate and model the effect of various stimuli that the robotic device could generate on its attractiveness to a fish shoal. We showed that, mostly, the robot’s movements and the lure shape had an effect on the acceptance of the robot. However, the effect of the lure...

To design the appropriate robotic system used during mixed society experiments, a stimuli analysis was preliminary required to test which aspects of the robotic devices could trigger the social behavior of the zebrafish. The main difficulty with such stimuli analysis is to isolate the effect of the different stimuli that the robot generates and tha...

In this chapter, we present different methods developed to control the FishBot so that the lure can mimic the zebrafish movements. In particular, we present a zebrafish-like locomotion pattern implemented at the level of the FishBot. A model capable of reproducing the trajectories made by zebrafish inside of the shoal is also presented. We conclude...

This chapter introduces the high-level software infrastructure developed for automated experimentation and analysis of mixed groups composed of robots and fish. We will first describe the general architecture of the software. Then, in more detail, we describe the tracking tools that were used to retrieve the position of the robots and the zebrafish...

In this chapter, we present the state of the art in the use of robotized fish lures for fish-robot interaction studies and miniature bio-inspired robotic-fish designs at the time this thesis was written. The last section will describe the position of our work compared to the current state of the art.

This chapter introduces the model organism that was used in the presented work, i.e, the wild-type AB zebrafish Danio rerio. We will first present the main biological characteristics of the zebrafish and explain why it is widely used nowadays as a model animal in different scientific topics. Some descriptions of the zebrafish behavior observed duri...

In this chapter, we conclude on the global achievements that were obtained throughout this study. We summarize the main contributions of this thesis in the topic of animal-robot interaction studies and present the perspective for the future in this field. We also mention the lessons learned about the use of zebrafish for this type of study and the...

In the first chapter of this dissertation, we defined the main goal of this study: successfully designing robotic tools to create mixed societies of robots and fish. Then, we showed how we designed the different robotic devices and controllers, using experiments involving fish to assess and improve their efficiency to trigger the social behavior of...

italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Contribution: This paper presents a model for educational robotics tools and a corresponding set of heuristics for their development and evaluation specifically adapted to the needs and expectations in formal education settings. Background: The incre...

Self-organized collective behavior has been analyzed in diverse types of gregarious animals. Such collective intelligence emerges from the synergy between individuals, which behave at their own time and spatial scales and without global rules. Recently, robots have been developed to collaborate with animal groups in the pursuit of better understand...

Effective radioactive hotspot localization and detection is limited by sensor characteristics (i.e., the long acquisition time and poor angular resolution AR of a gamma camera) that significantly degrade the performance of autonomous exploration in terms of the completion time and accuracy. The goal of this research is to study effective exploratio...

Robotics provides useful tools for educational purposes, allowing to engage students in learning within disparate domains, from computer science and artificial intelligence – traditionally the main domains for educational robotics – to general education, human and social sciences and arts. Robots can be used with different purposes, from being simp...

Collective behavior based on self-organization has been observed in populations of animals from insects to vertebrates. These findings have motivated engineers to investigate approaches to control autonomous multi-robot systems able to reproduce collective animal behaviors, and even to collectively interact with groups of animals. In this article,...

We have previously shown how to socially integrate a fish robot into a group of zebrafish thanks to biomimetic behavioural models. The models have to be calibrated on experimental data to present correct behavioural features. This calibration is essential to enhance the social integration of the robot into the group. When calibrated, the behavioura...

We have previously shown how to socially integrate a fish robot into a group of zebrafish thanks to biomimetic behavioural models. The models have to be calibrated on experimental data to present correct behavioural features. This calibration is essential to enhance the social integration of the robot into the group. When calibrated, the behavioura...

Recent progress in electronics has allowed the construction of affordable mobile robots. This opens many new opportunities, in particular in the context of collective robotics. However, while several algorithms in this field require global localization, this capability is not yet available in low-cost robots without external electronics. In this pa...

Rehabilitation aims to ameliorate deficits in motor control via intensive practice with the affected limb. Current strategies, such as one-on-one therapy done in rehabilitation centers, have limitations such as treatment frequency and intensity, cost and requirement of mobility. Thus, a promising strategy is home-based therapy that includes task sp...

A robot introduced into an animal group, accepted by the animals as conspecifics, and capable of interacting with them is an efficient tool for ethological research, particularly in studies of collective and social behaviour. In this paper, we present the implementation of an autonomous mobile robot developed by the authors to study group behaviour...

Robots have the potential to display a higher degree of lifetime morphological adaptation than natural organisms. By adopting a modular approach, robots with different capabilities, shapes, and sizes could, in theory, construct and reconfigure themselves as required. However, current modular robots have only been able to display a limited range of...