It’s back to school for Arty – and Artybot 2000!
Wednesday, September 13th, 2023
Say hello to Artybot 2000! We’re absolutely loving the creativity shown by our amazing BubbleBusters as they customise their little desktop robots that act as their eyes, ears and voices in their school classrooms.
Artybot’s the robot buddy of Arty, 7, who was diagnosed with leukaemia last year. He had a bone marrow transplant in April and won’t be back at school for many more months while his immune system recovers. The prospect of reconnecting with his class through his BubbleBuster robot has bought him much joy and given the whole family a focus for the new term.
As you can see, he’s been having fun with Artybot at home during the holidays, and now he’s looking forward to being firmly in the middle of the classroom and playground action in the coming months.
Our BubbleBusters project is an initiative that tackles the isolation and loneliness of children with immunodeficiency who can’t go to school because of a high infection risk due to their severely weakened immune system. A desktop robot produced by the company No Isolation takes the child’s place in the classroom and playground, and through it the child is able to hear, see and speak to their friends and teacher from their home or hospital bed using a mobile phone or tablet.
Our BubbleBusters team liaised remotely with both Arty’s family and the school to introduce the project and establish that internet connectivity in the house and the school was accessible and reliable. They then sent a loan desktop robot to the school and a tablet computer to Arty, overseeing the pairing of the technology and guiding Arty and his family through the process of connection and use.
Find out more about our BubbleBusters project here.