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The Anty project: a huggable robotic friend

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Hi,

Some days ago, I received notice by a research team of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel that is concerned with the development of a robot pet for hospitalized children. From the project's web site:

"The Anty project is an interdisciplinary research project aiming to develop a robotic friend for hospitalized children called Probo. The ANTY project will be used to accomplish three important goals concerning different areas of interest. The first and main goal is to develop and build the robot to enlighten the children’s stay in the hospital. A second goal is to use the robot as a multidisciplinary research platform for technical, medical, social and psychological studies. The third goal is to use the project to motivate students and to stimulate new technological innovation."

Not directly a NXT topic, but a nice sample for the different areas of society where robots will play their role in the future.

And another motivation that proves that - besides the fun it provides - dealing with robotics is not a vain task...

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