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R2D3 : Active-waiting robot for the disabled people’s waiting room at Bobigny, France

Innovation+lab+juillet+2017+(7)

The active-waiting robot was developed by the French local-level Seine Saint Denis Innovation Lab. We created the robot R2-D3 to help reduce the digital gap with Departmental Home for Disabled Persons (Maison départementale des personnes handicapées) users. It informs users on various topics in a playful and simplified way. It can speak and understand many languages, which is useful in the context. And it can also collect data from users.
It is user-oriented and it's built upon new robotic and open-source technology.

Innovation Summary

Innovation Overview

The challenge: how could we improve the experience for people waiting for their turn for service at the reception desk of the Department’s Home for Disabled Persons?  We designed this interactive robot after a 4 day Design sprint with designers, final users and professionals, the SP Lab co-prototyped R2-D3 together with Hectora (the robotics Think Tank) and the Fablab ICI Montreuil.

The R2-D3 prototype was launched on June 22, 2017 and then tested on-site with a psychologist analyzing and reporting its impact on users. The aim is to collect opinions - does it calm the mood in the room, does it deliver the desired information? There was also a focus on digital mediation which made people eventually perform better their administrative tasks online their administrative procedures.

Innovation Description

What Makes Your Project Innovative?

Digital technology pushes boundaries forward and consists in the evolution of the spatio-temporal framework, the possibility of providing services that better meet users’ needs, multimodal interactivity, user participation in building services, etc. Going digital means that management has to know how adapt in order to ensure its effectiveness while upholding the values of public service. Our innovation is in harmony with those values while being very innovative using an emerging tech (robotic), with a product that has never been done this way before.

What is the current status of your innovation?

The robot R2D3 has been tested in situ in the waiting room in Bobigny several times. It is now in the study phase for industrialization.

Innovation Development

Collaborations & Partnerships

Collaboration with :
- fablab Make Ici
- robotic think tank Hectora
- developping company Cesgensla
- an independant psychologist for the study on the test in situ
- institutionnal partners : CafLab (social services), Ministry of Modernization (state) and Region ile-de-france

Users, Stakeholders & Beneficiaries

Citizens : disabled citizens are the final users who can interact with the robot by searching for their files, asking questions and answering a satisfaction questionnaire. It can interact in several languages which is very useful in the department of Seine-Saint-Denis with has a lot of diversity.

Employees at the waiting room : it can ease up the atmosphere (results of the tests in situ), help with answering basic questions

Civil society organisations : digital mediation / it can help to empower people about the digital

Innovation Reflections

Results, Outcomes & Impacts

In terms of patients in the waiting rooms, the reactions were generally positive, as they felt valued. Medical waiting rooms are generally far removed from digital services, and as such, we received positive feedback. The patients particularly appreciated the utility of the tool - the robot circulates on its own, giving patients the freedom to engage with the robot, or not.

For more information about the robot in action, see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xinXJGvtNX8&list=PLeYuaFkYN3O8V-vU-z2tII1H9me_NR93F&t=0s&index=9

Challenges and Failures

  • A robot in such an environment can be tense. For employees, we faced the challenge of perception: there were concerns about the feedback mechanism, for it is hard to be rated high when the service in question is a waiting room. We also had to overcome employee fears that this was somehow an automation that would replace jobs.
  • It was a new product with new tech for the first time
  • There was a complication around noise - as a waiting room, we want to minimize noise so as to not bother anyone. At the same time, there are patients who want to engage with R2D3, speak with it, etc., so we had to find the right way to balance out these competing values.

Conditions for Success

- strategical support
- experimental approach
- a mix of employees, designers, tech, psychologist and project managers

Replication

The methodology is easily replicable.
http://www.lagazettedescommunes.com/578910/labo-cluster-quimporte-le-nom-pourvu-que-les-idees-naissent/

Lessons Learned

Robotics can be very powerful and a very fast moving sector.

People like the attention of having new tech in their public services.

Design thinking is key in digital innovation.

Innovation can be done for a limited budget in a short amount of time (6 months).

Project Pitch

Status:

  • Diffusing Lessons - using what was learnt to inform other projects and understanding how the innovation can be applied in other ways

Innovation provided by:

Media:

Date Published:

26 November 2017

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