Social or humanoid robots do hardly show up in “the wild,” aiming at pervasive and enduring human benefits such as child health. This paper presents a socio-cognitive engineering (SCE) methodology that guides the ongoing research & development for an evolving, longer-lasting human-robot partnership in practice. The SCE methodology has been applied in a large European project to develop a robotic partner that supports the daily diabetes management processes of children, aged between 7 and 14 years (i.e., Personal Assistant for a healthy Lifestyle, PAL). Four partnership functions were identified and worked out (joint objectives, agreements, experience sharing, and feedback & explanation) together with a common knowledge-base and interaction design for child's prolonged disease self-management. In an iterative refinement process of three cycles, these functions, knowledge base and interactions were built, integrated, tested, refined, and extended so that the PAL robot could more and more act as an effective partner for diabetes management. The SCE methodology helped to integrate into the human-agent/robot system: (a) theories, models, and methods from different scientific disciplines, (b) technologies from different fields, (c) varying diabetes management practices, and (d) last but not least, the diverse individual and context-dependent needs of the patients and caregivers. The resulting robotic partner proved to support the children on the three basic needs of the Self-Determination Theory: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. This paper presents the R&D methodology and the human-robot partnership framework for prolonged “blended” care of children with a chronic disease (children could use it up to 6 months; the robot in the hospitals and diabetes camps, and its avatar at home). It represents a new type of human-agent/robot systems with an evolving collective intelligence. The underlying ontology and design rationale can be used as foundation for further developments of long-duration human-robot partnerships “in the wild.” ... Read more

Objective To assess the effects of a personal robot, providing diabetes self-management education in a clinical setting on the pleasure, engagement and motivation to play a diabetes quiz of children (7–12) with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), and on their acquisition of knowledge about their illness. Methods Children with T1DM (N = 27) participated in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in which they played a diabetes mellitus self-management education (DMSE) game, namely a diabetes quiz, with a personal or neutral robot on three occasions at the clinic, or were allocated to a control group (care as usual). Personalised robot behaviour was based on the self-determination theory (SDT), focusing on the children's needs for competence, relatedness and autonomy. The SDT determinants pleasure, motivation and diabetes knowledge were measured. Child-robot interaction was observed, including level of engagement. Results Results showed an increase in diabetes knowledge in children allocated to the robot groups and not in those allocated to the control group (P =.001). After three sessions, children working with the personal robot scored higher for determinants of SDT than children with the neutral robot (P = .02). They also found the robot to be more pleasurable (P =.04), they answered more quiz questions correctly (P =.02), and were more motivated to play a fourth time (P = .03). The analysis of audio/video recordings showed that in regard to engagement, children with the personal robot were more attentive to the robot, more social, and more positive (P < .05). Conclusion The study showed how a personal robot that plays DMSE games and applies STD based strategies (i.e., provides constructive feedback, acknowledges feelings and moods, encourages competition and builds a rapport) can help to improve health literacy in children in an pleasurable, engaging and motivating way. Using a robot in health care could contribute to self-management in children with a chronic disease and help them to cope with their illness. ... Read more

Kinderen kennen eigen belevingen, waarden en behoeften wanneer het gaat om technologische ondersteuning, zoals eHealth. Dit onderstreept het belang kinderen nadrukkelijk te betrekken in onderzoek en ontwikkeling van technologische vernieuwingen. Dit wordt echter als uitdagend ervaren. Conventionele methodes als vragenlijsten schieten te kort. Dit artikel beschrijft een co-designpakket van creatieve methodes dat wordt ingezet om belangrijke dagelijkse ervaringen, waarden en behoeften te verzamelen bij kinderen (7-14 jaar) met type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), ontwerpeisen op te stellen en gebruikersevaluatie te verrichten. ... Read more