Roberto Mancini and the robots that allow hospitalized children to play

Roberto Mancini, 56, a computer science graduate, began thinking about his revolutionary project to assist children in pediatric hospitals using robots. While cycling down the Asiago plateau, he was catapulted onto the asphalt, not wearing a helmet: spinal cord and cerebellum injuries, hemiparesis, and memory impairment. Since then, his life has changed. Roberto he decided to fully commit himself to his field, to help every vulnerable person with robotics.

 His idea was born from a simple question: How can you make a hospital less scary for a child? Tests, visits and hospitalisations can be moments full of anxiety; so Mancin He thought of transforming robots into little playmates capable of distracting and reassuring young patients. The protagonist of this adventure was, above all, Pepper, a humanoid robot about 120 centimeters tall. It's not a doctor and doesn't replace nurses or parents: its job is to keep children company. It can talk, play, dance, recognize certain emotional cues, and interact with children before potentially scary procedures.

An interesting aspect is that Pepper does not replace doctors, nurses or psychologists: it is managed by the operators and inserted as playmate and relationship partner, to make the hospital journey for children more peaceful.

Pepper's case in Padua is not isolated, even if the Robot therapy in pediatric hospitals is still an experimental practice and present only in a few Italian centersThe most similar projects mostly concern humanoid robots used for reduce anxiety, fear and stress in children during hospitalizations, examinations or operations.

The most interesting cases in Italy are:

• Salesi Pediatric Hospital (Ancona)
  This is one of the cases closest to Padua. This is where the humanoid robot was tested. NAO, Called Estrabot, and subsequently Pepper, renamed Sally from a young patient. Robots accompany children through the preoperative journey, from the room to the operating room, helping them relax and distracting them before anesthesia.
• Santissima Annunziata Hospital of Taranto – Pediatrics and Pediatric Oncology
  Here it was introduced Aphel, a humanoid robot that plays, talks, dances, and interacts with children in hospital or day hospital settings. It was designed primarily to provide emotional support for procedures like blood tests, biopsies, and other challenging therapies.
• Federico II University Hospital – Pediatric Surgery
  A research group tested Pepper with hospitalized children to evaluate whether interaction with the robot could reduce stress and anxiety in the pre- and post-surgery phases.
• Research projects in Piedmont
  In collaboration with Piedmontese universities and healthcare companies, humanoid robots such as Pepper and NAO have been studied for potential applications in healthcare and child interaction, including those related to educational and therapeutic needs.
• Baby Jesus in Rome

A systematic review involved 24 children with ASD (average age approximately 9 years) undergoing robotic-assisted cardiology examinations. NAO was programmed to perform simple but targeted tasks: greet the child, sing, play small movement games, explain procedures using age-appropriate language, and provide positive reinforcement during tests such as electrocardiograms and echocardiograms.

The main results were:

• reduction of emotional distress: during visits with NAO the 70,8% of children showed no observable signs of distress, compared to 25% in previous traditional visits of the same patients;
• the percentage of children with disabilities serious or very serious she got off the 20,8% in visits without robots to 4,2% with NAO;
• they were also observed fewer motion artifacts and shorter procedural times, probably because the children were able to collaborate better and remain still longer during the exams;
• According to the parents, the robot helped divert the child's attention from the medical procedure, making the environment more predictable and less threatening.