News

No Isolation - AV1 Robot steering group

November 25, 2019

On Friday we attended a steering group for No Isolation government funded AV1 robot project.

No isolation are reducing loneliness and isolation through ‘warm’ technology. Their AV1 robot has been supporting young people with long-term chronic health conditions to access education.

The robot sits in the classroom and streams live video and audio to the child's tablet. Fitted with a camera, speaker and microphone, the robot possesses a number of features that allows the child to communicate with their classmates and teachers. These include a selection of emotions that are displayed through the robots eyes, a light that turns on when the young person wishes to raise their hand and the ability to rotate the robots head. This allows children who are have health conditions to participate in everyday life without being physically present.

Action for M.E. have been part of a steering group alongside other charities supporting children with long term health conditions. We attend regular meeting alongside Cath Kitchen (chair) and Sarah Dove (Project Manager at No Isolation), a young person representative and many others. Children with cancer, M.E. and mental health issues are amongst some of those eligible for the robot.

Now one year in to the project, we are excited to see how No Isolation develop this project so that many more young people with long-term health conditions are supported to access education.