Science - USA (2022-02-11)

604 11 FEBRUARY 2022 • VOL 375 ISSUE 6581 science.org SCIENCE

I

n a sunny room at the Boys & Girls

Club in Calistoga, a tiny city in Califor-

nia’s Napa Valley, Veronica Ahumada

is setting up her robot when a be-

spectacled little boy wanders in to ask

what she’s doing. Ahumada points to

the device—basically a tricked-out tab-

let on a meter-tall post, mounted onto

gyroscopic roller wheels—and he yelps

like he’s seen a ghost. “She has a robot!” he

hollers, bolting out the door.

Soon, about 40 tweens fill the room. Many

are Latino like Ahumada, and they are here

for after-school child care while their parents

work. When she invites them to guess what

the robot is for, their ideas bubble over: to

play video games! To go to the supermarket!

To help people get around! To take orders at a

restaurant! To take over the world!

Ahumada, who studies health informatics

and human-robot interactions at the Univer-

sity of California (UC), Davis, acknowledges

each child’s suggestion, then explains: “I use

these robots for children just like you,” but

who can’t go to school because they have

serious illnesses such as cancer or heart

problems. Those children can send the robot

instead, she says, and join their classmates

virtually, from home. The group falls silent.

“Whaaaaat?” they croon in a collective tune

of disbelief.

In fact, rolling robot avatars allow ill chil-

dren to attend school remotely in a few hun-

dred classrooms across the United States and

a smattering of other countries. The gadgets,

called telepresence robots, were designed to

allow doctors to conduct rounds from a dis-

tance and corporate executives to visit remote

facilities. They show a remote user’s face and

let the user see, listen, and speak as if they

were present. Ahumada and a few other re-

searchers think the devices could provide

classroom access to a long-overlooked group

of children. “We’ve never in the history of the

world had the opportunity for children with

these serious medical conditions to go to

school with their peers,” Ahumada says.

Children who use the technology have

called it life-changing because of the social

connections it allows. “It’s like I’m actu-

ally there—that’s why I like it so much,” an

8-year-old told Ahumada. In addition to

taking part in lessons as if they were in the

In a few classrooms, robots attend for children ailing at home.

A researcher wants to know how to make the devices better

FEATURES

DREAM MACHINE

Children test out a robot that can allow ill students to attend school with their classmates.

By Alla Katsnelson;

Photography by Xavier Mascareñas