Video: Meet HAL, the new medical training robot that talks, breathes and bleeds

Muscat: Doctors and paramedics will now receive better training in treating patients, now that a very-lifelike robot that actually talks, breathes and bleeds has been developed.
Named the Paediatric HAL, the robot is a living, breathing replica of an eight or nine year old boy, and was developed by medical research company Gaumard Scientific to provide paediatricians with better training and awareness of how children will react to medical procedures.
“Hi, I’m HAL,” says the robot, by way of introduction. “I’m the world’s most advanced patient paediatric simulator. I help healthcare students and professionals improve their skills in paediatric care through immersive simulation learning experiences.”
HAL claims to be the most advanced patient simulator, and is capable of simulating lifelike emotions such as laughing and crying, through dynamic facial expressions, movement and speech. HAL is designed to help care providers at all levels develop the skills they need to communicate, diagnose and treat young patients.
The HAL features interactive eyes and active facial expressions, dynamic lung compliance with true ventilator support and real patient monitor support for measurements such as Specific Oxygen, electrocardiograms, live pacing, defibrillators and non-invasive blood pressure (NIBP) tests.
The HAL also contains a surgical airway to allow for needle decompression and chest tube insertions, and does not need to be connected to wires to function normally. It illustrates nearly a dozen facial expressions and can be set to a number of emotional states, including anger, amazed, anxious, transient pain, quizzical, crying, ongoing pain, worried and yawning.
In addition, the robot has systems to track its position, and features automatic horizontal tracking and manual vertical tracking. Its eyes can be programmed in a number of ways, including twitching eyeballs, drooping eyelids, idle eye movement, independent pupil light reflex, blown pupil sizes, unequal pupil sizes and a variable blinking rate.
So lifelike is the robot that is also makes heart, lung and bowel sounds, with the respiratory system programmable to simulate common cardiology conditions such as abnormal heart rates and breathing patterns. The chest also rises and falls in tandem with the simulated breathing of the robot.
HAL also responds to mechanical ventilator support using real equipment like a real patient, and can be simulated through various stages of care, including treatment, weaning and rehabilitation, to the highest degree of physiological accuracy.
Video courtesy: Gaumard Scientific