Palm Beach Children’s Hospital at St. Mary’s Medical Center unveiled a new addition to its staff Tuesday: Robin, an AI-enhanced robot built to improve the patient experience. The hospital is the first in Florida to have the robot, which is already in more than 40 facilities across the country.
Robin was created by Expper Technologies to support both pediatric and geriatric patients. Káren Khachikyan, the company’s co-founder and CEO, said the robot was developed with input from patients, therapists and medical staff, and blends engineering, artificial intelligence and therapy.
Khachikyan said Robin acts like a child so she can relate to patients as a peer. “Robin is not their doctor or therapist or nurse. Robin is a friend,” he said.
The robot uses games, therapeutic exercises and conversation to engage children. Janet Levy, president of the Palm Beach Ray of Hope Foundation, said Robin can play a patient’s favorite song or video, and recounted a game of rock, paper, scissors with a visiting doctor that Robin won.
The foundation donated Robin to the hospital. Robin will stay at Palm Beach Children’s Hospital, and the foundation hopes to bring more robots to other children’s hospitals in the area.
