Probo, a testbed for human robot interaction

The concept of the huggable robot Probo is a result of the desire to improve the living conditions of children in hospital environment. These children need distraction and lots of information. In this paper the concept of a new social robot is presented. This robot can be used in hospitals, as a tele-interface for entertainment, communication and medical assistance. Besides the prototype of the real robot, a virtual model has been developed. With user friendly software these models can be used as an interface between an operator and a child. That way, Probo becomes a platform for experiments concerning human robot interaction with great opportunities in different disciplines.