For the study, published in the journal Pediatrics,researchers from the MIT Media Lab, Boston Children’s Hospital, andNortheastern University deployed a robotic teddy bear, “Huggable,” acrossseveral pediatric units at Boston Children’s Hospital. More than 50hospitalized children were randomly split into three groups of interventionsthat involved Huggable, a tablet-based virtual Huggable, or a traditional plushteddy bear. In general, Huggable improved various patient outcomes over thoseother two options.
The study primarily demonstrated the feasibility ofintegrating Huggable into the interventions. But results also indicated thatchildren playing with Huggable experienced more positive emotions overall. Theyalso got out of bed and moved around more, and emotionally connected with therobot, asking it personal questions and inviting it to come back later to meettheir families. “Such improved emotional, physical, and verbal outcomes are allpositive factors that could contribute to better and faster recovery inhospitalized children,” the researchers write in their study.
Although it is a small study, it is the first to explore social robotics in a real-world inpatient pediatric setting with ill children, the researchers say. Other studies have been conducted in labs, have studied very few children, or were conducted in public settings without any patient identification.
Children playing with Huggable experienced more positive emotions overall
But Huggable is designed only to assist health carespecialists – not replace them, the researchers stress. “It’s a companion,”says co-author Cynthia Breazeal, an associate professor of media arts andsciences and founding director of the Personal Robots group. “Our group designstechnologies with the mindset that they’re teammates. We don’t just look at thechild-robot interaction. It’s about [helping] specialists and parents becausewe want technology to support everyone who’s invested in the quality care of a child.”
“Child life staff provide a lot of human interactionto help normalize the hospital experience, but they can’t be with every kid,all the time. Social robots create a more consistent presence throughout theday,” adds first author Deirdre Logan, a pediatric psychologist at BostonChildren’s Hospital. “There may also be kids who don’t always want to talk topeople and respond better to having a robotic stuffed animal with them. It’sexciting knowing what types of support we can provide kids who may feelisolated or scared about what they’re going through.”
Boosting mood
First prototyped in 2006, Huggable is a plush teddybear with a screen depicting animated eyes. While the eventual goal is to makethe robot fully autonomous, it is currently operated remotely by a specialistin the hall outside a child’s room. Through custom software, a specialist cancontrol the robot’s facial expressions and body actions and direct its gaze.The specialists could also talk through a speaker — with their voice automaticallyshifted to a higher pitch to sound more childlike — and monitor theparticipants via a camera feed. The tablet-based avatar of the bear hadidentical gestures and was also remotely operated.
During the interventions involving Huggable –involving kids ages 3 to 10 years – a specialist would sing nursery rhymes toyounger children through the robot and move the arms during the song. Olderkids would play the I Spy game, where they have to guess an object in the roomdescribed by the specialist through Huggable.
Through self-reports and questionnaires, theresearchers recorded how much the patients and families liked interacting withHuggable. Additional surveys assessed the patient’s positive moods, as well asanxiety and perceived pain levels. The researchers also used cameras mounted inthe child’s room to capture and analyze speech patterns, characterizing them asjoyful or sad, using software.
A more significant percentage of children and theirparents reported that the children enjoyed playing with Huggable more than withthe avatar or traditional teddy bear. Speech analysis backed up that result,detecting significantly more joyful expressions among the children duringrobotic interventions. Additionally, parents noted lower levels of perceivedpain among their children.
The researchers noted that 93 percent of patientscompleted the Huggable-based interventions, and found few barriers to practicalimplementation, as determined by comments from the specialists.
An automated,take-home bot
The study also generated valuable insights fordeveloping a fully autonomous Huggable robot, which is the researchers’ultimate goal. They were able to determine which physical gestures are usedmost and least often, and which features specialists may want for futureiterations. Huggable, for instance, could introduce doctors before they enter achild’s room or learn a child’s interests and share that information withspecialists. The researchers may also equip the robot with computer vision, soit can detect specific objects in a room to talk about those with children.
“In these early studies, we capture data … to wrap ourheads around an authentic use-case scenario where, if the bear was automated,what does it need to do to provide a high-quality standard of care,” Breazealsays.
In the future, that automated robot could be used toimprove continuity of care. A child would take home a robot after a hospitalvisit to further support engagement, adherence to care regimens, and monitoringwell-being.
Next, the researchers are hoping to zero in on whichspecific patient populations may benefit the most from the Huggableinterventions. “We want to find the sweet spot for the children who need thistype of extra support,” Logan says.
Source: MIT
