Photograph courtesy of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital
While the people of the world were enjoying the Paris Olympics, patients as Cincinnati Children’s Hospital enjoyed Olympic festivities of their own involving two things kids love— dogs and robots. At the “Floor Olympics,” children competed at Seacrest Studios (the hospital’s closed circuit radio and television station) with the help of facility dogs from the Cincy Canine Comfort Program and state-of-the-art carrier robots known as gitaminis.
Robotics company Piaggio Fast Forward created the gita, a cargo-carrying robot with smart following technology, as a way to aid the every day person to move around their world more freely. What they didn’t expect was a boom in popularity among children’s hospitals.
Kevin Altimier, manager of Seacrest Studios and and facility dog coordinator, first saw the cute cargo machines on the Instagram of Charlotte’s Levine Children’s Hospital. “I immediately called them and was like, ‘what is this?’,” says Altimier. “And then they put me in contact with Piaggio Fast Forward, and we kind of just rolled it out from there on a pilot program because they’re fairly new to the hospital space.”
Photograph courtesy of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital
Gitamini can carry up to 20 pounds and is often found around Cincinnati Children’s filled to the brim with toys. Whenever there’s bingo or other game nights, the gitas are in charge of delivering the grand prize to the patient’s room. “It just kind of adds an element that can’t be reached with just us. I mean, kids are not as excited to see us as they are a robot with a speaker in it,” says Altimier.
Programming like the “Floor Olympics” has allowed the robots to be folded into more activities with both the kids and the ever-popular facility dogs. Since the number of therapy pets in the Cincy Canine Comfort initiative has been increased to eight, there was more fun to be had in the hospital’s summer games.
“The gitas kind of lead our opening ceremonies, and they were the torch bearers. They had to roll through the hallways, following some leaders, playing some Olympic music,” says Altimier. “The facility dogs were in the Seacrest Studios and kind of jumped through hoops, and ran an obstacle course around the gitas. A gita actually was following one of the dogs, which was quite hilarious.”
While at this point the gitas function as fun delivery devices, Cincinnati Children’s hopes to gradually incorporate more robotics to help assist in everyday operations.
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