Paper

Authors:: Malcolm Thomas; James Thomas; Catherine Naamani; Michael Vallance
Abstract: The absence of robots to assist with the repair efforts in the immediate aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant disaster of March 2011 revealed much about Japan’s lack of preparedness for nuclear accidents. The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission highlighted insufficient knowledge and training at the plant, with residents being left confused by the conflicting information regarding the dangers of the effects of the reactor explosions. The research summarized in this paper examines how students in Japan and UK collaborate towards the development of a better understanding of the challenges and possible solutions when dealing with disaster recovery such as Fukushima. The context for collaboration is set within a 3D virtual space and Fukushima simulation where students program LEGO robots to follow distinct circuits. The international collaboration by students as non-experts has highlighted the benefits and challenges posed when engaged in constructing robot- mediated interactions (RMI) within 3D virtual simulations. Students’ immersion (or flow), Circuit Task Complexity and Robot Task Complexity have been collated to create a new metric for tasks involving robots,which we have termed Task Fidelity.
Keywords: LEGO Robots;Virtual Worlds;Collaboration;Information Science; Task Fidelity; Japan; Wales
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