Co-design of a Social Robot for Distraction in the Paediatric Emergency Department

Abstract

We are developing a social robot to help children cope with painful and distressing medical procedures in the hospital emergency department. This is a domain where a range of interventions have proven effective at reducing pain and distress, including social robots; however, until now, the robots have been designed with limited stakeholder involvement and have shown limited autonomy. For our system, we have defined and validated the necessary robot behaviour together with children, parents/caregivers, and healthcare professionals, taking into account the ethical and social implications of robotics and AI in the paediatric healthcare context. The result of the co-design process has been captured in a flowchart, which has been converted into a set of concrete design guidelines for the AI-based autonomous robot system.