A few days after the son of Meagan Brazi-Sheehan was diagnosed with leukemia, they walked in the UMASS Memorial Children’s Medical Center halls as they ran to the robot.
– Luca, how are you? This was asked by a high voice programmed to sound like a 7 -year -old girl. – Some time has passed.
Brazil-sheehan said they met only a 4-foot-high (1.2-meter-high) robot with a large screen showing cartoon functions once before they were taken a few days earlier.
“His face caught fire,” she said of the interaction in June. Worcester, Massachusetts. “It was so special because she remembered it.”
Robin is an artificial intelligence with a therapeutic robot programmed as a little girl as it provides emotional support in nursing homes and hospital children’s units, helping to combat staff shortages. Five years after the start of the US, he became a familiar face of 30 health care facilities in California, Massachusetts, New York and Indiana.
“Nurses and medical staff are really too worked, undergoing great pressure, and unfortunately they have many times they have no way to engage in engagement and contact with patients,” said Karen Khachikyan, CEO of Expper Technologies. “Robin helps to facilitate that part of them.”
As he is becoming a part of everyday life, it is found in the field of medical care-it is all about everything, starting from the notes during the exams to the electronic nurses. When some proclaim it because of its increased efficiency, others are worried about its effects on patient care.
Robin is about 30% autonomous and a team of operators working remotely controls the remaining eyes of the clinical staff on duty. Khachikyan said that with each interaction, more data could be collected – still in accordance with the Health Insurance Perselliness and Accountability Act or Hipaa – and to get closer to it to act independently.
“Imagine pure emotional intelligence like Wall-E. We try to make it, “he said, pointing out the 2008 cartoon.
Making wheels
Recently, in Orange County, a Healthbridge Children’s Hospital, in California, a list of patients who needed Robin, as well as the time she needs to spend with everyone.
The robot with a sleek white triangular shot, which Khachikyan said he was a hug wrapped in a room with a teenager injured in a car accident. The robot played what he described as his favorite song – Dej Loaf’s “Nevis” – and he danced together. In the hallway, Robin broke a little child, which was considered by his mother when he dressed many stupid glasses and a large red nose. In another room, the robot played a simplified version of the TIC-TAC-TOE.
Hospital language pathologist Samantha da Silva stated that patients ignite when Robin comes into his room and not only remembers their names but also his favorite music.
“She brings joy to everyone,” said Da Silva. “She goes in the halls, everyone likes to talk to her, to say hello.”
Robin reflects the emotions of the person he speaks, explained by Khachikyan. If the patient laughs, the robot laughs together, but if they share something heavy, his face reflects sadness and empathy.
Robin plays memory games with people suffering from dementia, performs breathing exercises on difficult days and offers them a form of friendship that resembles a granddaughter with a grandmother.
Khachikyan remembered a moment at the Los Angeles object last year, where a woman suffered a panic attack and specially asked for a robot. Robin played the songs and videos of his favorite musician about his favorite animal – Elvis Presley and puppies – until she calmed down.
However, when the American College Association has predicted that up to 86,000 doctors in the US has been missing over the next 11 years, Khachikyan’s vision of Robin transcends this type of support.
He said they were trying to make the robot to measure patients vital and check how they were doing, and then send that information to their medical team. Long -term plans include Robin’s design so that elderly patients can change their clothes and go to the bathroom.
“Our goal is to design another development of Robin; that Robin will take more and more duties and become an even more important part of the care,” Khachikyan said.
He stated that it was not about changing health care workers, but about labor gaps.
The UMASS robot is a very important part of the patient support team. When Luca needed IV, when after a while, Micaela Coto, a certified children’s life specialist came with a robot and showed him what would happen soon, and then Robin played his cartoon when it was inserted.
“It just helps to show that Robin also performed these procedures, as did his peers,” Coto said.
Find her niche
Robin was developed by Khachicyan before he received the PhD. He said he grew up in a household of one parent in Armenia, so a year later he wanted to create a robot that could act as a person’s friend.
The developers tried it in various industries until the investor suggested that children’s hospitals be suitable for stress and loneliness that children often feel.
“It was a kind of AHA moment,” he said. “We decided, well, let’s try.”
They succeeded in presenting it at Children’s Hospital in Armenia, and by 2020. UCLA Mattel launched a trial program at the Children’s Hospital.
Since Robin has been created, his personality and character have changed dramatically, based on the answers of the people she interacts with.
Khachikyan provided an example of Robin’s answer to the question: “What a favorite animal.” Initially, they tried to react with the robot with the dog. They also tried the cat. But when they tested the chicken, the children broke. So they got stuck.
“We created Robin’s personality by actually involving users in the equation,” he said. “So we often say that Robin was designed by users.”
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Damian Dovargan, Associated Press journalist, contributed to the report.