Robot to help ailing teen attend school virtually, meet friends
A Calgary teen dealing with a debilitating disease is now able to virtually attend class with his friends, despite the pandemic.
Cody Kirk, 17, was diagnosed with Gaucher disease at the age of one. It requires him to use a wheelchair.
Even before the pandemic, attending school in person was becoming a challenge, but Kirk's symptoms make him more vulnerable to potential side-effects of the coronavirus.
Matthew Zuberec, a fellow student at Notre Dame High School, had previously worked in a pre-engineering class to build a device that would allow Kirk to move around the school remotely from his home.
A pre-engineering class already had a robot that could be controlled remotely, and they were attempting to add a computer to it.
“The plan was to take an ipad or a Chromebook and attach it to the top, so that way he could drive it around with the web interface using the arrow keys, and he could still seamlessly interact with us,” said Zuberec.
Zuberec and his team's robot wasn't complete when the pandemic hit, making it more difficult for them to work on it. Around that time, Zuberec saw advertisements for Z3 Networks' Double 2 robot, which resembles an ipad on wheels.
The telepresence robot allows people to control it remotely via a web browser. The user can see what's happening on the other end, but it gives the added dimension of being able to move around a room.
He reached out to the company with Kirk's story, and got a positive response. With help from Konica Minolta, the company behind the Double 2, Kirk received his robot Wednesday.
“It's a real honour for Z3 Networks to use our expertise and product to give Cody the ability to attend school and be with his friends,” said Z3 founder Darryl Graham.
Mariette Dobrowolski, one of Kirk's former teachers, said the process of working on building a robot and eventually receiving the Double 2 was a breath of fresh air in the teen's life.
“His engagement, his desire to get up in the morning, his enthusiasm for life just shifted totally when we were able to make those connections happen for him. His relationships he developed with (Zuberec and others in the class) were powerful,” she said. “They mean the world to him and so does this experience.”
Martin Ferguson-pell, a doctor in the faculty of rehabilitation medicine at the University of Alberta, called Kirk a test pilot for technology that will help others in the future.
“He's really leading the way,” said Ferguson-pell. “So many people will be able to benefit from the work Cody has put in to show how this technology can be so effective.
“I think the bit that Cody misses is that when he is in the room on his Double 2 robot, he feels to everyone else as though he's there. It's a very strange feeling. This idea of telepresence is that feeling of someone else being there. Cody may see everyone else, but everyone else (also) feels Cody is with them.”