Externalising moods and psychological states to smooth pet-robot/child interaction through bluetooth communication

Abstract

Nowadays have already passed more than two years since PATRICIA research project about using pet robots to reduce pain and anxiety in hospitalized children was started and the advances made are more than significant. Patients, parents, nurses, psychologists, engineers... all of them have adopted with illusion Pleo robot, a kind of robotic pet, working hard looking for new procedures and new solutions to the current pediatrics diseases. From this work, a technological contribution is provided going one step beyond to what seems a long path. Concretely, it is wanted to develop a system to wirelessly communicate with Pleo in order to help the coordinator who leads the therapy with the kid, to understand and control Pleo’s behaviour at any moment. This article explains how this technological part is being developed and obtained technical results.