Huggable: the teddy bear robot with a person steering it from the hallway

A 2005 demo and what the bear’s look was meant to carry

Huggable is a social robot from the MIT Media Lab’s Personal Robots Group. The lab’s page records demos in 2005, while MIT News dates the first prototype to 2006. The group describes it as a companion for health care, education and social communication, meant to enhance a person’s social network rather than replace anyone in it. A 2015 report said it has a touch-sensitive skin with about 1,500 sensors and actuators quiet enough that no gears are heard. It has cameras in the eyes and microphones in the ears, and a soft silicone skin makes it look like an ordinary teddy bear. A 2017 master’s thesis by Sooyeon Jeong says a bear is generally perceived as cute, friendly and unintimidating. The round body, big head and large eyes stress a juvenile look, and the fur comes off and can be washed to meet hospital infection control policy.

A 2019 hospital trial with 54 children in three groups

In June 2019 Pediatrics published a joint study by Boston Children’s Hospital, MIT and Northeastern University. Researchers approached 68 hospitalized children aged 3 to 10 and randomized 54 to meet Huggable, a tablet-based virtual Huggable or a plain plush bear, for 30 minutes each. The team described it as one of the first studies of social robots in an inpatient setting. The robot was not autonomous. A specialist in the hallway outside the room controlled its expressions, movements and gaze, watched the child on a camera and spoke in a voice pitched higher. Younger children got nursery rhymes with arm movements, and older ones played I Spy.

Children enjoyed it, and the measures disagreed

Of the children who met Huggable, 93% called it fun and 92% wanted to play again. For the plush bear the figures were 75% and 63%. Speech analysis found the most joyful utterances with Huggable, and parents perceived lower pain. Children also got out of bed and moved more. The physiological data, however, showed a modest positive effect in all three groups with no statistically significant differences between them. Jeong’s thesis likewise found no significant change in clinician-rated or self-reported affect, pain and anxiety. The researchers called it a small study whose main aim was to show feasibility. Kevin Hommel of Cincinnati Children’s, who was not involved, called it an innovative adjunctive tool that appears highly engaging for children. Study author Deirdre Logan said, “Social robots create a more consistent presence throughout the day,” since child life staff cannot be with every child all the time.

A bear that moves only when someone steers it

Huggable was a research tool for finding out what is possible in a hospital room, not a product. The bear form was chosen to seem friendly and non-threatening, and a person steered the conversation. The team named a fully autonomous robot and take-home use as long-term goals, but the results so far include the time of the specialist behind it. Jibo’s functions were tied to its company’s servers. Huggable’s are tied to a person.

How much of what a robot does in a hospital room is really done by a person behind it?

What we haven’t confirmed

• How Huggable trials and the autonomous version developed after 2019
• Any sales plan or price (we found no record of a sale)
• Any published design award or expert design review
• Replication by independent researchers