“心链”：面向儿童教育的模块化多模态交互机器人设计

“BondBot”: Design of Modular Multimodal Interactive Robot for Children’s Education

摘要: 当前，双职工家庭增多与亲子互动匮乏导致越来越多的儿童陷入“情感孤岛”，其情感健康与社交发展面临严峻挑战。针对双职工家庭增多背景下儿童高质量陪伴缺失的问题，本研究提出“心链(BondBot)”模块化多模态交互机器人设计方案。研究构建了“情感感知与响应–亲子协同中继–模块化成长支持”三层交互模型，原型实现了触摸触发表情反馈、家长端小程序远程语音留言与交互日志同步等核心功能。通过对儿童家长的问卷调查，57.41%的家长认同机器人作为“传递家长关爱媒介”的角色；79.63%的家长认为毛绒、非人形外观更具亲和力；46.30%的家长在模拟加班场景中首选“预先录制故事”模式。研究重点在于设计理念、交互模型构建与面向家长的用户概念验证，为智能陪伴设备设计提供了新思路。

Abstract: In contemporary Chinese society, the steady increase in the number of dual-income families, coupled with the growing inadequacy of quality parent-child interaction time, has caused an escalating number of children to fall into what this study defines as a state of “emotional isolation”. This prevailing social phenomenon has given rise to increasingly severe challenges that threaten children’s healthy emotional development and the normal cultivation of their social competence and interpersonal skills. Targeting specifically the pressing problem of the lack of high-quality parental companionship for children against the broader social background of the continuous growth of dual-income family structures across the nation, this research puts forward a systematic design proposal for a modular multimodal interactive robot specifically developed for children’s educational purposes, officially named “BondBot”, or “Xinlian” in Chinese phonetic translation. This research systematically establishes a comprehensive three-layer interaction model, which consists of three sequentially connected and functionally complementary components: the first layer focuses on emotion perception and appropriate response mechanisms, the second layer serves as the parent-child collaborative relay system, and the third layer provides modular growth support functions for long-term adaptation. Based on this theoretical framework, the research team has successfully developed a functional prototype that effectively realizes several core interaction functions. These key functionalities include the mechanism of triggering corresponding facial expression feedback through physical touch input, the technical implementation of remote voice message delivery through a dedicated parent-side WeChat mini-program, and the automatic synchronization function of all interaction behavior logs between the robot terminal and the parent’s mobile application interface. Through a carefully designed questionnaire survey administered to parents of children within the target age group, this study has obtained several significant empirical findings. The statistical results demonstrate that 57.41 percent of the participating parents express their recognition and approval of the robot’s important role as an effective “medium for transmitting and conveying parents’ love and care to their children”. Furthermore, 79.63 percent of the parent respondents hold the opinion that a soft plush texture combined with a non-humanoid appearance design can significantly enhance the product’s sense of intimacy and emotional approachability for young users. Additionally, when presented with a simulated work overtime scenario that represents a typical situation in dual-income families, 46.30 percent of the participating parents select the “pre-recorded story playback” mode as their preferred method of remote interaction with their children. The primary focus and contribution of this research lie in the innovative design philosophy, the systematic construction of the three-layer interaction model, and the user concept validation conducted from the parental perspective, which collectively provide valuable new perspectives and practical references for the future design and development of intelligent companion devices for children.