The biologist Herminia Peña introduced us this Wednesday to “MyRot”, the first social robot in the world with a tree aesthetic that aims to capture the attention of the patient or student and facilitate the work of the specialist.
She explains that her husband, who is a specialist in Industrial Automation, developed the model for this, and in 2018 he participated in the third International Congress of Social Robotics at the Technological University of Panama (UTP), where he obtained the award for best project and best acceptance for the public present, who were Panamanian and foreign specialists who were online during the event.
Peña comments that initially, the robot only narrated some stories that are his own, however, they decided to take “MyRot” to another level, where the specialist is the one who gives the therapy.
It should be noted that physically, it is a representation of the pot-bellied tree of Panama. In its trunk it has a Tablet that projects an image of a face and can express different gestures or emotions, through a wireless speaker it emits the voice of the specialist, who from an App installed on his cell phone or computer speaks and performs his work, this creates the illusion that the tree is speaking.
He mentions that this robot tree also seeks to mitigate the early attention deficit in terms of patients suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), since the patient or student may be treated by the specialist of the institution where he attends that has less demand, which could be in another headquarters of the institution.
