Meet Robin: Robot providing emotional support to kids in hospitals

Health facilities in the U.S. are shifting focus to robots in an attempt to provide emotional support to young and old-age patients alike.

As AI has been penetrating into our everyday life, it is equally finding a role in health care as well.

At a pediatric center in Massachusetts, a therapeutic robot named Robin roams the wards, checking in on kids.

Robin, with a height of 1.2 meters, has a sleek, white triangular body structure that was designed with a purpose for hugging, its developers claim.

Robin meets with a six-year-old boy with leukemia and says, “Luca, how are you? It's been a while," whom he had met last time when it spotted him in the corridor.

According to its developers, Robin is designed in a way to act and sound like a 7-year-old girl. It can extend emotional support for children in long-term care, who are often confronted with painful procedures during their treatment.

The prime objective of designing this robot is to provide comfort and emotional support to patients during their stay in medical centers and extend a blend of entertainment and engagement.

Robin’s creator, who is a tech developer, explained the robot, saying, “Imagine a pure emotional intelligence like WALL-E. We are trying to create that,” in his reference to the 2008 animated movie.

Since 2020, the robot has been part and parcel of the care team at UMass Memorial Children’s Medical Center.

Robin has now become a well-known face in around 30 health care medical centers in California, Massachusetts, New York, and Indiana, five years after its launch.

Robin is not limited to pediatric centers alone; its services have also been extended to old-age medical facilities, where it acts like a grandchild, claim its developers.

Robin, besides being programmed to provide emotional support, is also trained to play games in nursing homes with people suffering from dementia and guides them through breathing exercises, thus offering a strong bond of companionship.