Baby Robot Helps Toddlers with Their Motor Skills

Researchers from the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya in Barcelona have created a robot that helps toddlers with their motor skills by encouraging them to try and grab it while on the floor or by moving away from the robot in a chase-like fashion. Known as the Baby Robot, the idea was to develop a system to enhance classic crawling toys, making them interactive and entertaining while crawling or learning to walk. Instead of using predefined patterns and movement, the robot can react to children’s movements, making it a fun learning tool as well.

The Baby Robot was designed as a car-like toy outfitted with a camera, ultrasonic sensors, motors, several wheels and a microcontroller packed into a plastic housing. The robot uses reinforcement techniques and computer vision to identify and track children while avoiding obstacles. Once the target child is identified, its mission is to escape to another nearby location. Using these systems not only allows kids to increase their mobility skills but also improves cognitive capabilities by predicting where the robot might move next.

The researchers tested the Baby Robot in a real-world environment using a group of toddlers in kindergarten and a set of conventional car toys. The idea was to see how the kids interacted with the robot compared to the other toys. They found that the toddlers preferred to play with the robotic car more than the others, and they noticed that their mobility skills were enhanced over time. While the Baby Robot was deemed a success, it won’t be manufactured until it undergoes a revision or two.

The Baby Robot is just an initial prototype that was built using cheap components that could potentially become a hazard for toddlers. More details can be found in the team's paper here.