Effects of a Humanoid Robot on the Well-being for Hospitalized Children in the Pediatric Clinic - An Experimental Study

• Published in: Procedia computer science Vol. 176; pp. 2077 - 2087
• Main Authors: Beyer-Wunsch, Pia, Reichstein, Christopher
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 2020
• Subjects: Humanoid Robots; Influence of Robots; Pediatric; Pepper; Robot Interaction; Humanoid Robots; Robot Interaction; Pepper; Pediatric; Influence of Robots
• ISSN: 1877-0509; 1877-0509
• DOI: 10.1016/j.procs.2020.09.244

Initial studies show that robots can provide useful support and remedies in care activities. According to the current state of the scientific literature, it remains unclear how assisted care can be provided by a robot, especially for a wide range of clients, such as children. Due to the experience of nursing staff in pediatric clinics, it is known that children often react anxiously to the care measures that have to be carried out on a daily basis. These care interventions can have a negative impact on the well-being of children. One option to improve a child´s well-being is through distraction. An experiment in a pediatric clinic is used to verify whether the children’s well-being can be improved by interacting with a humanoid robot. The experimental set-up involves the robot talking to the child and performing interactions at the request of the child or nursing staff. To measure the emotional state of the child before and after the intervention, the robot asks a direct, verbal question about the child’s state of mind. For further data about the emotional state of the child, the reaction is observed and documented by the researchers during the interaction with the robot and the nurse. In addition to this, the parents are interviewed by a questionnaire. Even though the evaluation of the collected data and observations did not show a significant improvement in mood after the measures, the observations show that the children overall react very positively to interactions with the humanoid robot. What this observation suggests needs to be further investigated, but it shows that a positive and interested basic mood was created by the humanoid robot. This positive effect was observed regardless of the age of the children or the degree of the disease.