Using AI-Enhanced Social Robots to Improve Children's Healthcare Experiences

儿童每天都会在临床环境中经历疼痛和痛苦，未解决的疼痛的负面后果可能是短期的(例如，恐惧、痛苦、无法执行手术)和长期的(例如，针头恐惧症、焦虑)。在项目组成员进行的一系列小型创新研究中，NAO类人机器人被用来在针头操作过程中提供基于认知行为治疗的干预。这些早期研究的结果是积极的，显示出目标人群的高接受度以及有希望的初步临床结果。然而，这些研究都受到一个关键技术限制的阻碍：在所有情况下，机器人都是远程操作的，采用纯脚本行为，只有有限的人工智能支持，这削弱了它行为的灵活性和健壮性，以及它为儿童提供个性化、适应性程序支持的潜力。在这个项目中，我们的目标是通过开发和评估一个具有临床相关性和响应性的AI增强的社交机器人来解决这一限制。我们相信，与一个强大、适应性强、社交智能的机器人互动，可以有效地在痛苦的临床过程中分散儿童的注意力，从而减少疼痛和痛苦。

Children experience pain and distress in clinical settings every day, and the negative consequences of unaddressed pain can be both short-term (e.g. fear, distress, inability to perform procedures) and long-term (e.g. needle phobia, anxiety). In a series of small, innovative studies by project team members, a Nao humanoid robot has been used to deliver cognitive-behavioural therapy-based interventions during needle-based procedures. The results of these early studies have been positive, showing high acceptance among the target population as well as promising initial clinical results. However, these studies were all hindered by a critical technical limitation: in all cases, the robot was remotely operated and employed purely scripted behaviour with limited AI support, diminishing the flexibility and robustness of its behaviour as well as its potential to offer personalised, adaptive procedural support to children. In this project, we aim to address this limitation by developing and evaluating a clinically relevant and responsive AI-enhanced social robot. We believe that interaction with a robust, adaptive, socially intelligent robot can effectively distract children during painful clinical procedures, thereby reducing pain and distress.