Robot to greet patients at Ostend hospital

Starting next week, a humanoid robot called Pepper will assist staff at the reception desk of AZ Damiaan hospital in Ostend. It will mark a world first in robots being deployed for a reception task in a medical context.

The robot was developed by Ostend-based QBMT, the robotics firm that developed the well-known Zora robot. The hospitals have been using Zora for a couple of years now in the geriatrics, children’s and rehabilitation departments. These kind of robots have been used to motivate the elderly to exercise in rest homes and to comfort children on their way to surgery.

At 140 centimetres, the Pepper generation of robots is larger than the Zora style. The new generation is also more mobile and finely developed for specific tasks. The Pepper robots are currently being tested in shops in France and Japan (pictured), but are being deployed in a medical context for the first time in Ostend.

QBMT is a pioneer in robot technology and has delivered robots to some 200 hospitals and health-care institutions across Europe, the US, Australia and Japan. The company targets the health-care sector but has also developed robots for reception tasks, such as in hotels.