We attended the Miroki robotic exams, which is able to accompany kids throughout their radiotherapy | EUROtoday

I could not see little kids cry, on their own, strapped at a desk throughout their radiotherapy session.Dr Julien Welmant

To converse, Miroki makes use of a big mannequin of language (LLM) equal to chatgpt. But it stays for the second below the slender and everlasting management of Thibault Siedel, an intern engineer at Enchanted Tools. Because the robotic can not and mustn’t inform the youngsters. “I gradually see the subjects that we must not speak of,” explains the younger engineer. “If the child asks questions like” I’m going to die? “, Isn’t it in the robot to answer him. His role is to reassure him, and direct him to an adult, a doctor. “Before being left alone with kids within the radiotherapy room, Miroki may also be examined” to verify that the radiation does not damage it, and that it is not likely to return to the child “. Psychologists, anthropologists and sociologists will examine the interactions between kids and the robotic.

HAS Broca, robots to stimulate the aged

Robots in hospitals: on the Broca de Paris Hospital, specializing in geriatrics, Broca Living Lab engineers have been learning patient-residential-robot interactions for nearly twenty years. On the day of our go to, round twenty residents are gathered within the widespread room for a standard bingo sport. But with a considerably particular animator: Nao, a 58 cm humanoid robotic, created by the French start-up Aldebaran. “Do you all know the bingo?” »Says the engineer Lauriane Blavette. “So what we are going to offer you is that Nao, the robot that is here, gives you the numbers. Are you ready? Here we go. »»

“Press my left foot to begin,” Nao asks a resident, Marie-Baptiste, who complies, captivated. “Let the balls roll!” »Shouts Nao cheerfully before making a sound of balls shaken in a basket. “This one is the primary time that I’ve seen it,” says Marie-Baptiste, between two Bingo issues. “I love the other large robot, the one called Pepper. He has a science fiction side. »»

Most participants are visibly enchanted by the presence of the small animator, which is brought to table in the table. A single resident has a step back. “It is fascinating to hold out animations with this little robotic,” says Claire Louison, the head of the animation and social life service of the hospital. “It breaks the routine, and it is a completely different middleman that draws their consideration. »»

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“The effects are very positive,” confirms Maribel Pino. For the director of Broca Living Lab, humanoid and animaloid robots have proven their curiosity in a number of areas: “They facilitate the reference to professionals for sufferers who comply with therapies. Another very fascinating use is that of robotic stuffed animals, which individuals can caress or take of their arms. They have a soothing impact and reduce behavioral problems for sufferers with average or superior cognitive problems. »»

Like Miroki, who enchants kids earlier than their radiotherapy session, they’ll additionally function a “cognitive and emotional distractor” to facilitate care on the aged with dementia or Alzheimer’s illness. “It could be very making an attempt for sufferers, who can not verbalize the ache, and for caregivers, who’re pressured to immobilize them and to face aggressive behaviors. We have seen that the mediation of the robotic, in these instances, could be very fascinating. “The Broca team is also working on” moral, regulatory and societal “issues and” acceptability by sufferers, caregivers and households “of these robots. “Some caregivers may have the feeling of being put in competition with robots. »»

“Our purpose is to not change caregivers”

“Our purpose is to not change caregivers or workers,” says Samuel Benveniste, co-founder and vice-president of Enchanted Tools, the start-up that designed the Mirokai Robots family, with Miroki and Miroka. “But to provide them the flexibility to do their work in higher circumstances”.

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The kangaroo of the day

The Mirokai, which will probably be marketed in 2026, attracts different prospects than hospitals the place they’re at present being examined, akin to APHP, ICM or Seattle kids’s hospital. In the sector of well being, they may, in accordance with Samuel Benveniste, to alleviate caregivers “of repetitive, tiresome, dangerous or bad tasks for health, so that they can focus on humans”.

We may even see Miroki and Miroka in just a few years orient sufferers within the ready room, supply them actions to appease tensions, information them within the corridors, or enter and transport objects from one level to a different. But the expertise in progress on the ICM, whether it is convincing, will cross a CAP with humanoid robots: accompanying a affected person the place caregivers, by no means, will be capable to go. “What the robotic will do within the radiotherapy room, it is just he who can do it. »»