A YOUNG cancer patient who is too sick to go to school as she undergoes treatment is back in the classroom — thanks to a robot.

    Ten-year-old Peyton Walton, from Montgomery County, Maryland, the U.S., was recently diagnosed with a rare, and particularly aggressive type of liver cancer.

    The youngster was started on a course of chemotherapy, followed by several rounds of radiotherapy in New York as she battles the disease.

    But now the keen student has been able to return to her Montgomery County school in Maryland, if not in person, thanks to a special robot that she has named Peyton’s Awesome Virtual Self, or PAVS for short.

    Designed by Double Robotics, the device features an iPad screen attached to a rolling base.

    Peyton is able to control PAVS through an app on another iPad, which allows her to move around school, chatting with classmates and attending class like any other student.

    Poolesville Elementary School principal Douglas Robbins said that after the initial shock, students now saw the robot as Peyton.

    “As they see that robot in the hallways, that’s Peyton,” said Robbins. “She’s here, she’s with us and she’s going to engage in the school day, just like the rest of them.”

    The youngster admitted she was still getting used to the remote control robot that uses Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity to tie the remote user to the robot’s iPad and the iPad to the roller.

    “I try not to crash into walls,” she said.

    Her mother was grateful for the robot that allowed to her daughter to act like any other 10-year-old girl: going to school and chatting with her friends.

    “The robot is bringing a little excitement into what otherwise would be an unrelentingly anxious and painful time,” she said.

    “Peyton is able to have a little bit more autonomy in her education,” Schaeber added. “She has control over her day-to-day activities in school, whereas cancer takes that from her, and really isolates her.”

    The schoolgirl’s family were able to buy the robot for US$3,000 after her uncle Todd Schaeber set up a Go Fund Me page.

    (SD-Agencies)