Meet Robin: An AI robot designed to imitate a 7-year-old comforts hospital patients
Sep 19, 2025
A robot designed to imitate a 7-year-old girl is reportedly being used to comfort patients from California to Massachusetts.
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I need to see room 21 for 20 minutes
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And then you can come back and see Julia for another 10 more minutes
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I wanted to build a Wally-type robot, and I learned about social robotics
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the field of robotics that designs robots to work with people. A robot program to imitate a 7-year-old girl is roaming hospitals and nursing homes
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in an effort to bring comfort to patients. The Associated Press reports the robot named Robin uses artificial intelligence
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to provide emotional support for children and adults while also helping to alleviate stress on medical staff
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made worse by a shortage of workers. Nurses and medical staff are really overworked under a lot of pressure
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And unfortunately, a lot of times they don't have capacity to provide that
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engagement and connection to patients. Robin Botts are now at 30 medical facilities
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from California to Massachusetts, helping people of all ages, a crucial component of her role
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Primary goal of Robin to comfort patients during their stay in medical facilities and provide engagement entertainment emotional support One of the examples is a pediatric use case where kids are admitted for a long hospital stay
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and they are experiencing different types of medical procedures and a lot of them are painful
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So Robin is a companion that stays with them. The emotional support bot is only partially
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autonomous with the rest operated by a team of support staff. But the ultimate goal is to have
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her function on her own. She's currently capable of playing patients' favorite tunes, conversation
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or a game of tic-tac-toe. Robin is also capable of catching on to emotions and will reflect a
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patient's mood when interacting with them. She's even been known to lift spirits
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Yeah, I think the patients definitely know who she is. You know, she takes turns in every patient's
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room, you know, spending a little bit of time with them. And you can tell that the patients
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when she enters the room, they light up because they know it's their turn. And efforts are reportedly underway for Robin to eventually take the vitals of patients
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and relay it to the rest of the medical team. Researchers also say they plan to program her
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to assist elderly patients with changing their clothes and bathroom visits. For more on this
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story, download the Strader News app or visit san.com
#Public Health
#news
#Kids & Teens
#Pediatrics


