Peyton Walton controls her robot, fondly known as Pavs, which stands for Peyton's Awesome Virtual Self. Photo / Washington Post
Peyton Walton controls her robot, fondly known as Pavs, which stands for Peyton's Awesome Virtual Self. Photo / Washington Post
Technology means ‘virtual self’ keeps young student involved in classroom activities despite her illness
The robot has a little girl's face, her soft voice. It comes to life on weekday mornings at Peyton Walton's elementary school in Maryland, attending her classes as she works the controls from her room near a hospital in New York.
Peyton is 10, thin and blue-eyed, a girl who loves penguins and the colour green and clothes that sparkle. She goes to school in in Montgomery County, 400km south of the hospital were she is receiving radiation therapy for a rare type of cancer.
In the past three weeks, it's the robot - fondly nicknamed Pavs, for Peyton's Awesome Virtual Self - that connects her to the lessons she can't physically attend. She joins in the day's activities, talks to teachers and navigates her classroom, her face showing in real time on a raised iPad screen on the 1.2m, 6.8kg, rolling machine.
"I really like math and science, so I just like being there and learning what they have to teach me," the fifth-grader said.
For Peyton, the two-way robot system gives her a greater sense of normalcy, a stronger connection to friends, more focus on the familiar rhythms of childhood that preceded her whirl of medical treatments. Her experiences are being studied by officials in Montgomery County, Maryland, where the technology has become a pilot programme.
"We really are just beginning, and we are learning a lot," said Kara Trenkamp, the district's director of technology integration and school support. "The initial start has been very positive."
The school-based robot appears to be a first in Maryland public schools, according to state officials, and it has sparked other interest, too. Educators in neighbouring Fairfax County, Virginia, recently dropped by to take a look - and they liked what they saw. At Poolesville Elementary, students and staff have embraced Peyton's robot, which resembles a small Segway, with a rolling base and an iPad at the top.
Peyton Walton. Photo / Washington Post
"It's really cool," said fifth-grader Tilly Gaughan. "She'd probably get a little bored in the hospital and get a little sad not seeing her friends."
With the robot, "she can do school and still have fun, seeing her friends and stuff". Sometimes her friends wave to her and she waves back.
Peyton's mother said the robot's importance goes beyond instruction; it's also her daughter's primary way of socialising, penetrating the isolation that comes with serious illnesses.
"It makes all the difference," said her mother, Lynn Schaeber, who pressed on all fronts to get the device for Peyton, doing research, writing letters and meeting with educators.
Schaeber said the technology enables Peyton to keep up, preventing gaps in her learning. But more important is the sense of normalcy that comes from being able to do "the one thing that kids do - go to school," she said.
Peyton's doctors in Washington and New York say that her experience is the first they've seen with robot technology.
"I think it's a really exciting technology that could potentially benefit lots of kids," said AeRang Kim, a paediatric oncologist at Children's National Health System.
Double Robotics, which made Peyton's device, has sold about 5000 such "telepresence robots" since 2012, mostly for use in the business world, said Sara Broyles, a company spokeswoman. About 350 schools in the United States have bought such robots from the company, she said.
On Long Island, a robot stood in for a ninth-grader last year after the teen had emergency surgery and was about to miss an important week of classes. The robot, borrowed from his mother's employer, took his place, connecting him from home.
"It was easier than anybody anticipated," said Roberta Tropper, principal at Long Island School for the Gifted. "It was almost seamless."
However, Satyandra Gupta, director of the Maryland Robotics Centre at the University of Maryland, said it might take time before telepresence robots become common in schools. It's not just an issue of acquiring the technology - Peyton's cost about $3000 ($4590) - but it also raises questions about logistics and privacy, he said.
"If you're going to have a robot walk the hallways, it could create challenges," Gupta said.
While a teacher often sets up her robot in class, Peyton moves it around the room. The controls show up as buttons on the screen of the same iPad she uses for games such as Minecraft, and she finds the technology easy to manage. "I play games that are something like this ... so it's pretty simple," she said.
