Honda’s Haru is a cute new robot that cheers up children in hospitals

What’s worse than being stuck under six feet of snow? Getting stuck in the hospital, especially if you’re a kid fighting cancer. To make these long-term hospital stays less lonely, Honda presented a robot based on artificial intelligence to assist in the healing and rehabilitation of children.

Honda Research Institute Japan (HRI-JP) is a subsidiary of Honda’s R&D division, which focuses on “advanced technology research”. One of the results of this research is Haru, a social robot based on artificial intelligence in partnership with the Virgen del Rocío University Hospital (HUVR) in Seville, Spain.

HUVR has been using Haru in its pediatric oncology department since 2021. The intention is to improve clinical and emotional care for children, and so far the project seems to be working. According to Honda press releasethe social experiment confirmed “a certain level of positive impact on children with cancer.”

No specifics or indicators of how HUVR came to this conclusion were provided. But the children’s hospital has seen enough changes in the children’s attitudes and behavior that they want to introduce 10 Haru units to be used throughout the children’s oncology ward to help young patients on a daily basis.

“Typically, technologies used in hospitals are focused on treatment or physical well-being,” HUVR said in a statement. “However, Haru has a positive psychological effect, improving the mood of our young patients, as well as contributing to the well-being of the hospital as a whole. The support that Haru provides in enabling children in hospital to experience greater happiness and connection with others is unique to Haru and offers valuable benefits not found in traditional healthcare.”

Haru is only 12 inches tall. Not only does its compact size make the Haru portable, but its comfortable desktop space doesn’t intimidate kids who may already be feeling overwhelmed.

Using a built-in camera and microphones, Haru captures biometric information about who it interacts with, such as facial expressions and tone of voice. The information is analyzed, which then allows Haru to understand the child’s current emotional state and how best to interact with them. For more detailed analysis, Haru can also be linked to the child via a connected wristwatch.

Haru itself has no human attributes and was designed for neutral communication, allowing the robot to manage group interactions as easily as individual ones. Haru was purposely designed to be a social butterfly, to make people smile, to be empathetic. At least as sympathetic as a robot can be.

This is not the first time that Honda has created a project that brings happiness to children. Last year, Honda Performance Development (renamed Honda Racing Corporation) introduced the “Shogo”, an electric car for hospital patients between the ages of four and nine. Although Haru is not about life in the fast lane pediatric ward, as long as the children are happy and comfortable in the hospital, that’s all that matters.

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