The prototype created in Valencia teaches the little ones how the body regulates glucose.
Researchers at the University University of Valencia (UPV), belonging to the Institute of Industrial Automatic and Informatics (AI2), have developed the first robot with diabetes in Spain and an interactive game that teaches the little ones how the body regulates the glucose.
The objective of these initiatives is to be able to teach children, especially those who are between 6 and 12 years old, concepts on the management of diabetes in a "friendly" and "attractive" way for them, as explained to Efe the researcherof the AI2 Jorge Bondia Institute.
Both projects will be presented next Saturday in the Polytechnic City of Innovation, in the UPV Science Park, on an educational day aimed at children with diabetes and their parents and organized by the company A. Menarini Diagnostics, which is expectedthat attends half a hundred minors.
Robotics, simulation, augmented reality or mobile applications ("apps") will form the day, which will be divided into four very interactive and personalized workshops, and in which children will be the protagonists and learn to reinforce knowledge about diabetes with their parents.
The first workshop will have Andy, a robot that has been incorporated into its interior that informs its virtual blood glymia in real time and responds depending on the activity it does and the insulin dose that is supplied.
This is the first time that this robot will be presented in society and will share with the children an activity in which it will explain, among other things, what are the consequences of doing sports for diabetes control.
The child can see through this robot "the consequences of dosing the insulin well or badly," according to Bondia, who says he has chosen to use robotics because "empathizes a lot with children" and they feel "very motivated"When they see a robot.
Through Andy, the little ones can capture and better understand "key aspects of the management of diabetes therapy."
"They see that he speaks, that he eats, that is dosed, that he starts running and if he has done wrong he will feel bad. See realistic actions in a robot, in something physical that moves, generates more empathy than presenting the sameThrough a dialogue or a powerpoint, "he defends.
On the other hand, the AI2 Institute team of the UPV (responsible for the development of the Spanish artificial pancreas) has created an interactive computer game whose objective is to teach how the body regulates glucose, what is the mission of each organ and how shouldMake a diabetic person.
Focusing on the calculation of the insulin dose for a meal, the simulator helps in real time to know the metabolic process.
Jorge Bondia has explained to Efe that the objective of the simulator is the same as that of the robot, only that, on this occasion, minors see the effects of diabetes and therapy through cartoons.
Another of the protagonists of the day will be "Arbreakfast", an application of augmented reality that helps diabetic children to relate breakfast foods with carbohydrate rations.
Through an interactive game, children must guess the rations of each of the products that are shown.
Subsequently, they are presented with a final challenge in which they have to identify as many different breakfasts as possible in minute and a half, considering the rations of carbohydrates recommended for each of them.
The last of the workshops that will take place on Saturday will be more technical and is aimed at parents, since it will present the latest technology for the dump and data management of people with diabetes.
