Utilizing a Social Robot as a Greeter at a Children’s Hospital

John Allan Øllgaard, Kirsten Bundgaard, Mette Sorag Kjaer, Leon Bodenhagen, Oskar Palinko

Abstract: Parents arriving at the hospital with their children might feel under pressure. Kids might also feel anxious regarding their upcoming doctor’s visit. Thus a greeter might be needed. However, there is an acute shortage of nursing staff in many countries around the world. Given the above issues and at the request of the local hospital, our group set out to make an initial deployment of a greeting robot at the entrance of a children’s hospital. Its purpose was to remind parents of where they need to go to register their arrival and at the same time, entertain kids. We were able to positively affect arriving families and create a more welcoming environment for all. This paper also gives recommendations for future deployments of greeter robots at hospitals.

External IDs:doi:10.1007/978-981-96-3525-2_11