# A Socially Assistive Robot using Automated Planning in a Paediatric Clinical Setting

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.09753 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.09753/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 5 of its 40 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 18 Oct 2022.

## Builds on (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [RetinaFace: Single-stage Dense Face Localisation in the Wild](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.00641/) (2019)
- [FaceX-Zoo: A PyTorch Toolbox for Face Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.04407/) (2021)
- [Explainable Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1709.10256/) (2017)
- [PFLD: A Practical Facial Landmark Detector](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.10859/) (2019)
- [Assistive robots for the social management of health: a framework for robot design and human-robot interaction research](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.03062/) (2020)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present an ongoing project that aims to develop a social robot to help children cope with painful and distressing medical procedures in a clinical setting. Our approach uses automated planning as a core component for action selection in order to generate plans that include physical, sensory, and social actions for the robot to use when interacting with humans. A key capability of our system is that the robot's behaviour adapts based on the affective state of the child patient. The robot must operate in a challenging physical and social environment where appropriate and safe interaction with children, parents/caregivers, and healthcare professionals is crucial. In this paper, we present our system, examine some of the key challenges of the scenario, and describe how they are addressed by our system.