A robot programmed to act like a 7-year-old girl works to combat fear and loneliness in hospitals

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Robin the Robot visits with a patient at the HealthBridge Orange Specialty Pediatric Hospital in Orange, Calif., on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Days after Meagan Brazil-Sheehan’s 6-year-old son was diagnosed with leukemia, they were walking down the halls of UMass Memorial Children’s Medical Center when they ran into Robin the Robot.

“Luca, how are you?” it asked in a high-pitched voice programmed to sound like a 7-year-old girl. "It’s been awhile.”

Brazil-Sheehan said they had only met the 4-foot-tall (1.2-meter-tall) robot with a large screen displaying cartoonlike features once before after they were admitted several days earlier.

“His face lit up," she said about the interaction in June in Wo