The city council is using robots in an innovative new pilot to help connect with children who cannot attend school due to illness.
The state-of-the-art technology will ensure children maintain a connection with education and their peers.
Created by No Isolation – a company specialising in the design of ‘warm technology’ to address the increasingly urgent social problem of loneliness – AV1 is a robot avatar that acts as a child’s eyes, ears and voice in the classroom when long-term illness, disability or mental-health conditions prevent them from being there in person.
The idea was conceived by Karen Dolva, who founded No Isolation after meeting Anne Fi Troye - a mother who had lost her teenage daughter to cancer in 2005.
While her daughter was ill, the physical pain of the illness and treatment was secondary to the social isolation she suffered as a result of being separated from her school and her friends.
Now, children at schools in Nottingham who might otherwise have had their future prospects and wellbeing damaged by medically necessitated exclusion have a much better chance to thrive – academically and socially.
AV1 is an app-linked device fitted with a camera, speaker and microphone, that opens up a two-way audio and one-way visual channel between the student and their classmates, allowing them to learn alongside their peers, and maintain social contact with their friends, without obliging them to appear on camera themselves.
AV1 sits on a desk or can even be easily carried by friends in the playground.
Two motors enable AV1 to raise and lower its head or revolve up to 360º, enabling the student to see and hear everything going on in the classroom; and 4G and WiFi connectivity ensure it can function both indoors and out.
Nottingham City Council is one of local education authorities currently taking part in a pilot scheme to explore the viability of AV1 as a permanent addition to their provision.
