Charlie is a robot who assists diabetic children daily. Thanks to his presence and his involvement, he helps little patients to manage their disease in a better and more fun way.
Designed by robotics engineers and European academics, Charlie is a “Personal Assistant for a Healthy Lifestyle”. It is developed by the Netherlands Organization for Applied Science Research (TNO) and its Italian and German counterparts FCSR and DFKI, as well as the University of Delft in the Netherlands and Imperial College London in the United Kingdom.
Charlie’s mission: to support little diabetics on a daily basis
Mark Neerincx, scientific researcher at the Technical University of Delft, quoted by AFP, explains that the researchers want “to develop a new kind of character who helps children cope with the disease, teaches them what the disease is. diabetes as well as the effects of sport and food ”.
The lack of insulin secretion by the pancreas is responsible for type 1 diabetes. In France, this disease forces 18,000 children and adolescents to control their insulin peak and to self-administer this hormone. A binding situation. Indeed, this rate can vary according to the diet and even physical activities.
“A sick child and his family think about diabetes every ten or fifteen minutes,” Gert Jan van der Burg, pediatrician at Gelderse Vallei hospital in Ede, central Netherlands, told AFP. “Because a birthday snack, a trip to fast food, a sporting activity, or a simple game of video games can quickly make the blood sugar level soar or plummet”.
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